A Change of Fate
by redsandman99
Summary: James gets a chance to change his life completely by getting his two deepest desires fulfilled. But will those changes be worth the price that comes with them?
1. Chapter 1

**A/N: What if scenarios…I've got a couple of different story plans in my head involving them and this is the first one of those. Takes place back in the summer of 2003 and everything you think you know is about to get turned on its head, so buckle on up. This ride is sure as hell going to get bumpy.**

…

"_Lawson! Would you hurry your ass up already? We don't have all night!"_

"_Hold your horses Marky!" James yelled back as he adjusted his costume. "I'll be ready soon!" He hated how impatient Mark always was. Like really, couldn't he just be patient for once in his life. Would it really kill him? James didn't think so but Mark obviously disagreed, which was frustrating. "Mother fucker," he muttered under his breath, adjusting his costume and examining himself in the full length mirror that was in the room. It was Halloween and they were going out with Annabelle and Glenn to roam the town and get into trouble, just like they always did. Only difference was though was that he hadn't been able to talk Mark into dressing up this year. He had tried and tried his hardest but Mark had been stubborn until the end._

"_Well I'll show him," James said under his breath as he made the final preparations on himself. Since Mark wasn't dressing up he was going balls to the walls, as Dr. Frank-N-Furter from the Rocky Horror Picture Show. He loved the movie (he had been obsessively going to the midnight showings whenever he could) and he knew that it would get to Mark in some way to see him like that, which was his main goal. Whether that getting was annoyance or being turned on didn't matter to him. As long as Mark was got to, he would be a happy camper._

_Once he determined that he looked good, he joined the others downstairs. "Okay bitches, let's go!" he said cheerfully as he found them all in the kitchen. Glenn had on his usual monster mask (that was as far as his dressing up ever went), Annabelle was Batgirl and Mark was Mark, only he turned into a shocked Mark when he looked up and saw what James was wearing. He tried to say something but he ended up choking on the drink of Coke he had taken instead and Glenn had to whack him on the back in order to get him to breathe again._

"_Um…James?" Annabelle said slowly, her voice cracking because she was in shock too. He had told her about his costume but she obviously hadn't expected him to really go through with it._

"_What?" James said innocently. "Why are you all looking at me like that for?"_

"_You look like a fruitcake," Glenn replied bluntly._

"_Well you look like a burned up freak," James countered. Actually Glenn didn't look all that bad because of his extensive post-fire surgery but he wasn't about to tell him that. _

"_James be nice," Annabelle scolded gently._

"_Why? That's no fun." He ignored the exasperated sigh she let out and grinned at Mark. "Like what you see Marky?"_

_Mark just stared at him, unable to really do anything, not even blink. "Lawson…what the fuck? You're not really going out like that are you?"_

_James pouted his lips. "Well yeah, that was the point. Why wouldn't I?"_

"_Because you can't go out like that."_

"_Why not?"_

"_Because…you can't."_

"_Again I ask why not," James repeated. "Come on Marky, it took me ages to find heels that would fit my big ass feet. I gotta take advantage of that."_

_Mark looked down at those heels and shook his head. "You know those are going to start hurting your feet and you'll start bitching and whining for me to carry you."_

"_No I won't."_

"_Yes you will."_

"_No."_

"_Yes."_

"_No I-"_

"DADDY WAKE UP!"

James was violently jerked out of his sleep by the sound of Connor yelling right in his ear. "Jesus fucking Christ," he cursed under his breath, his ear now ringing like hell because of Connor's scream. "What?" he said, sticking his finger inside of his ear and moving it around in order to try to regain his hearing. "What's the matter?"

"The movie is over," Connor informed him. He pointed towards the TV and made a loud whining noise. They had been watching The Rocky Horror Picture Show together and James had fallen asleep in the middle of it out of pure exhaustion (Connor had kept him up all night by literally bouncing off the walls). "Start it over I want to watch it again."

James winced and rubbed the back of his neck. He had laid on it wrong and now it was stiff as hell. "Again? Really?"

"Yes!" Connor insisted. He grabbed James by the shirt and began shaking him to the best of his ability. His hair was getting crazy long and he really did need a haircut. Unfortunately, the odds of him getting one any time soon weren't that great. Connor and haircuts didn't mix because they required him to sit perfectly still and he couldn't have that. Unless he was asleep or really really REALLY entertained by a movie, he had to be moving at least somewhat. It was like he had a rocket up his ass on a constant basis and it really wore on a lot of people's nerves. Not James though…well, not so much anyway. Maybe it did get a little tiring on occasions but Connor was his baby. He wasn't the typical sixteen year old at all. He wasn't looking to assert his independence and grow up. He was still a baby and relied on James in way Cooper and Mark insisted were not normal. But what was normal? James sure as fuck didn't know. It was too subjective of a phrase to him anyway. What was normal for one person was not normal to another. Besides, James had been somewhat like Connor when he had been his age and he had grown out of it and settled down for the most part. Connor just needed more time to do the same thing.

"DADDY!" Connor yelled again, getting visibly angry when James made no move to get off the couch. "Movie! I want to watch it again!"

"How about we go get dinner first and then we'll watch it again?" James suggested. He wasn't really hungry but he knew that Connor had to be and not realize it yet.

Connor tilted his head to the side and thought about that offer long and hard before slowly nodding. "I want to go to Burger King," he declared. "I want a Kids Meal with a GOOD toy in it. They don't always give me good toys and I hate that. I really do Daddy."

"I know you do," James said as he ruffled Connor's hair. "I'll make sure you get a good toy. Now go get your brother and tell him he's coming with us." Cooper had been up in his room all day and that didn't set that well with James. Sleeping off a hangover was one thing but he was sure Cooper was doing that and was now just brooding, like usual. Since turning twenty one just a few weeks ago, the only time Cooper really ever went out was to go party. Otherwise he locked himself away, only socializing with James and Connor whenever the mood struck him (and that mood had yet to come today).

"What if he says no?" Connor asked innocently.

"Well you tell him he don't have a choice," James replied. "And if he still gives you shit, come to me. I'll make him listen."

"Okay Daddy." Connor got up and ran out of the room so fast that he nearly tripped over Spencer, the English bulldog they had adopted after they had killed his original family. He was older dog than what James originally intended on getting (he had to be at least ten or eleven years old) but Connor had fallen in love with him on sight so James hadn't fought him on it.

"I get any messages while I was napping Spencer?" he asked as he checked his voicemail on his cell phone and then checked the answering machine for the regular phone. Mark was supposed to call him sometime today and let him know when he was coming home. "Huh? Did my Marky call me?"

Spencer yawned lazily before laying down and staring at him apathetically. That got translated to being a big no because there were absolutely no messages from Mark. That wasn't really all that unusual but it still pissed James off. "I bet he called Sara," he muttered under his breath, talking to absolutely nobody in particular. "You watch Spencer, I bet you he did. And I bet I'll get a call at the end of the week saying that he has to spend his days off with her instead of me." He kicked the wall out to let out some of his frustration but it really didn't do anything to make him feel better. As much as he liked Sara better than Jodi, he couldn't help but hate her for taking Mark away from him. Mark was supposed to be with him, not married to her and having babies with her and being away in Texas. It wasn't fucking fair but he couldn't really do much about it. If he and Mark started fighting all the time again then Mark would just go back on the bottle and turn into a giant asshole again, which was the last thing he wanted. That was shit he never ever wanted to deal with again if he could help it.

He heard two sets of thundering footsteps and turned just in time to see an overly hyper Connor return with a disgruntled Cooper. "Jesus, you look like death warmed over," he said as he took a good look at his oldest son. Maybe that was too blunt but it was the truth.

Cooper grunted and took his sunglasses out of his pocket and put them on. "Why the fuck did you send him up there?" he asked, jerking his head towards Connor. "Do you hate me or something?"

"No silly, Daddy loves you!" Connor declared, jumping on to Cooper and wrapping his arms and legs around him like he was a monkey or something. The attachment Connor had for Cooper had grown even more intense since the two of them had started sleeping together. At least James was sure that that was what they were doing. Connor's hormones had hit him like a truck and of course he had gone to Cooper and Cooper had told James he would take care of the matter. Of course it would horrify most parents to know that their sons were fucking but not James. He himself had had an incestuous relationship with his own sister so he already had quite a different opinion about the whole thing. And as long as nobody was getting hurt or anything, he figured he could just let it be. "And I love you too Coopy."

"I-oh ew!" Cooper groaned as Connor licked the side of his face. "That's disgusting, don't do that!"

Connor threw his head back and cackled loudly before getting off of Cooper and running off towards the front door. Cooper wiped his cheek off with the back of his hand and gave James an irritated look. "You really are going to make me go out to eat with him? He can't behave to save his life!"

"Sure he can," James said, automatically coming to Connor's defense. "I know he's a little high strung-"

"High strung? He's beyond high strung Dad."

"Cooper…please don't." James didn't want to fight with Cooper, especially when he was seriously hungover. It was almost like fighting with Mark, only Cooper twisted the shit he said and used it against him in a way that drove him absolutely mad. "I'll keep him under control, okay?"

"You better," Cooper grumbled. "Because I'm in NO mood to deal with his shit."

That did not sound like a good thing and as it turned out, he was right about that. Connor got rowdy like he usually did, bouncing up and down from his spot on the booth and throwing food all over the place no matter how much James tried to get him to stop. Cooper watched this all go on, obviously getting more and more frustrated by the second. Finally he just reached right across the table and smacked Connor right across the face as hard as he could, making the young teen burst into tears immediately.

"Cooper Benjamin!" James said angrily as he pressed Connor's face up against his chest in order to try and muffle the fit he was having. "Was that necessary?"

"He wouldn't stop!" Cooper said defensively.

"So you hit him? He's a baby-"

"He's sixteen! He's not a fucking baby! He just acts like that because he knows you'll let him get away with murder otherwise."

"Well…"

Cooper shook his head, remembering that James let him get away with murder too. "I didn't even hit him that hard. Why are you freaking out so much?"

"You left a mark," James said, pointing to the part of Connor's face that was red.

"It'll fade in a few minutes," Cooper said with a shrug. "And-whoa!"

Connor suddenly stopped crying and lunged across the table, screaming like a banshee and gnashing his teeth, scaring the fuck out of all the small children that were in the establishment. James wrapped his arm around Connor's waist to hold him back while Cooper grabbed his wrists to keep him from hitting. When he realized that wasn't getting anywhere with his plan of attack, Connor changed his game up and spat right in Cooper's food. Cooper's eyes narrowed dangerously and Connor shrieked and yanked himself away from James and Cooper, running for his life out the door with Cooper hot on his heels.

"BOYS!" James yelled, hopping up to his feet and tearing after them as fast as he could. By the time he got outside they were already a block and a half down and he did not feel like running that distance. "God fucking damn it…" He stormed over to his car and got in, cursing loudly when he realized his keys were in his pocket and he was going to have to get back out of the car because he was too big to do it from inside of it.

"Rough day Mr. Lawson?"

"JESUS FUCK!" James jumped so high that he hit his head on the ceiling of the car. Wincing in pain, he looked back and saw a well dressed, middle aged black man (British judging from his accent) calmly sitting in the backseat of his car like nothing was wrong with that at all. "Who the fuck are you?"

The man blinked and then shook his head slowly. "Mr. Lawson-"

"WHO are YOU and WHY the FUCK are you in MY car?" James wanted the answers to those questions and he wanted them now.

The man didn't even flinch when most would have been running the fuck away at that point. "My name is Mr. D," he said calmly "And-"

"Oh how the fuck do you know my name?" James threw in there for good measure. "And why the fuck-"

"Am I in your car?" Mr. D smiled softly when James stopped because the question had been taken right out of his mouth. "Well I had an offer I wanted to make you and I needed to get your attention."

"Well it worked," James said nastily, his heart still not beating normally because he had really been startled by this asshole. "But I'm not interested in your offer."

"Well no, I don't suppose you are right now," Mr. D said calmly. "But you will be eventually."

James blinked, still really thrown for a complete loop by this guy's sudden appearance. It wasn't like he had ever had some random stranger pop into the back of his car, knowing his name and trying to make him offers. That shit just was not right. "Oh yeah? And how do you know that?"

Mr. D didn't answer. He just looked around the car, smiling softly as he touched any part of the interior he could reach. "This is a lovely vehicle you have here Mr. Lawson. I-Mr. Lawson, you're not planning on slaughtering me, are you?"

James froze in his tracks. He had actually been reaching for his knife just as he said that. "I-"

"Mr. Lawson, that is not very nice," Mr. D scolded gently. "To try to kill a man for simply wanting to make you a very generous offer? Where are your manners my dear boy?"

"First of all, I don't do manners," James snapped, gripping the handle of his knife tightly to make himself feel better. "Second of all, I'm not your boy, let alone your dear one. And third of all, I think it's time for you to leave before I do fucking gut you because you are just fucking weird."

That stupid little grin refused to leave Mr. D's face, which was just way unnerving. "Of course. I'm sorry Mr. Lawson, I'll talk to you when the time is better."

"How about you don't-" James's voice died when Mr. D disappeared from the backseat of his car completely instead of going out the door like a normal person. "What the-" There was a knock on his window and he turned around to see Mr. D waving at him before disappearing into thin air again, leaving James by himself to be very freaked out and confused.


	2. Chapter 2

Two days later and James was still really weirded out by the whole Mr. D thing. He had tried to just blow it off but he hadn't been able to. The whole thing hat just been weird as fuck and it was hard to get over. Strange men randomly popping up inside of his vehicles and then disappearing like fucking Houdini did not set well with him. It was weird and creepy and he wanted to tell someone about it but he knew Cooper wouldn't believe him and Connor wasn't a good person to talk to about that kind of stuff because he wouldn't really help him understand the situation. Who he needed to speak to was Mark but of course James couldn't get a hold of him. He couldn't even get a ring when he dialed the number which probably meant he had broke it once again. The man was almost as bad as Connor when it came to breaking phones. It was ridiculous and a more than a little inconvenient at times.

"Daddy!" Connor said, careening around the corner with Spencer right on his heels. He liked to make the dog follow him around so he could just drop down and play with him whenever he felt like it but Spencer was a bit of a lazy bum and didn't like to cooperate all the time. He preferred to jump up to wherever James was sitting and sleep in his lap, which didn't always go over well with Connor. "Daddy Daddy! Daddy! Guess what I want?"

"Uh…I don't know. I give up." James wasn't even sure if he wanted to know what it was that Connor wanted. These kinds of conversations didn't always lead to goodness, especially when Connor wanted something he couldn't have.

"I want a hamster!" Connor exclaimed, happily plopping down in James's lap and bouncing up and down excitedly.

"A hamster?" James said with raised eyebrows. "Really now?"

"Yes," Connor confirmed. He nodded his head so hard that the majority of his hair fell into his eyes. "I want a hamster. You gotta get me one Daddy."

"Well…what's the magic word?"

"NOW!" Connor shouted gleefully, making James's ears ring with that one. Cackling madly, he leapt back up to his feet and took off running. "I'll go get my shoes on! You better be ready to go when I get back Daddy!"

James shook his head in exasperation and looked down at Spencer. "What am I going to do with him Spence?" he asked, hoping that the dog could give him some kind of answer. "Huh? Can you tell me that?"

Spencer just stared up at him before hopping up on the chair and snuggling up against him and licking his hand. James chuckled and scratched the animal behind his ears, making him wag his tail out of happiness.

"Good boy…" James glanced up as he heard footsteps and watched Cooper plop down on the couch. "Hey."

"Hey," Cooper said back.

"I'm surprised you're up. It's only two in the afternoon. Don't you usually wait until the sun sets to crawl out of bed?"

Cooper shrugged. "I would have if Connor wasn't so noisy. Kid needs a mute button." He ran his hand through his hair and let out a loud sigh. His face was looking really pale and tired. He had been partying way too much lately and needed to lay off it for a bit. "So what was he just yelling about this time?"

"He wants a hamster," James answered.

"A hamster? Are you sure we can trust him to take care of a rodent."

"No but it's what he wants." James was whipped to almost all of Connor's desires and he really made no effort to hide it. What would be a point?

"Daddy!" Connor yelled impatiently. "Are you coming or not?"

"Yeah I'm coming!" James assured him. He got up to his feet and stared hopefully at Cooper. "You coming?"

Cooper groaned loudly. "Do I gotta?"

"No…but I would like it if you did." James didn't like Cooper always trying to isolate himself these days. It meant he was slipping back into one of his funks which was a very bad thing. He was really his own worst enemy at times and it really bothered James because he never seemed to be able to do anything about it.

Cooper sighed before reluctantly getting back up. "Can we kill someone after this?" he asked hopefully.

"Of course," James assured him. Maybe that would make Cooper feel better. He knew a good murder always worked wonders for him. "Come on, you know that's always on the menu." He put his hand on Cooper's shoulder and gave it a firm squeeze. Cooper smiled weakly and shoved his hands into his pockets before following James towards the front door, where Connor was anxiously waiting for them. "You know you're not going to leave the store with just a hamster right?" he asked.

James frowned. "I could-"

"No way. Not if Connor has anything to say about it.

Cooper was right of course. He was always right about those kinds of things. When they got to the pet store Connor not only insisted on getting a hamster but he had to get a ferret as well. The ferret was christened Stinker because the thing smelled weird to Connor and the hamster was deemed Suzy Q, even though he was a boy hamster.

"So…you hate this thing?" Cooper asked Connor as he eyed Suzy Q dubiously.

"No," Connor replied. "I love him."

"But you gave him a girl's name."

"So?"

"Well if you don't like him why would you do that?"

Connor huffed impatiently, not liking that he was having to explain his reasoning. "He's a BOY hamster who thinks he's a GIRL. You know, like Joie!"

James just about dropped Stinker's cage when that line came out. He saw the look that came over Cooper's face and it made him cringe. Whoever said time healed all wounds had not ever met Cooper. Time wasn't doing shit for him. Five years later and Cooper was still wearing the wounds of losing his precious Joie. He hadn't been the same since he had been killed and there was no going back unfortunately. Part of Cooper had died that night right alongside his boyfriend and James couldn't help but blame himself for that. He had been the one to drag Cooper off to try to force him to bond with Mark and end their bad blood, which left Joie to fend for himself that night. People tried to tell him it wasn't anyone's fault but the people who killed Joie but that didn't do a whole lot of good. Cooper and James both blamed themselves and nothing could really change that.

Connor of course was oblivious to the impact his words just had and he started jumping up and down when he caught sight of something else that caught his attention. "OOOOH Daddy look! Daddy Daddy Coopy Coopy! There's a MAGIC store over there! Do you see it? Do you see it?"

"Yeah, we're not fucking blind," Cooper snapped.

"Cooper," James said gently but Cooper took a big step away from him. He didn't want to hear it.

"I wanna go!" Connor announced. He turned around and clasped his hands together so he could begin to beg. "Please Daddy I wanna go! I wanna go I wanna see the magic!"

"Magic isn't even real," Cooper said in exasperation. "That place is going to be a crock of shit."

"Magic is too real!" Connor snapped. "Marky said-"

"Mark don't know shit. He just tells you crap to mess with you."

"Nuh uh! He said it was real and he showed me and I wanna go! Daddy! Tell Coopy to stop being mean and take me to the magic shop!"

James sighed, feeling a headache coming on already. "Cooper why don't you take these things to the car?" He handed Stinker off to Cooper and grabbed Connor's arm. "I'll take him to check out the magic place and then we'll meet back up and go hunting."

Cooper rolled his eyes because James was just encouraging Connor but he didn't try to fight him on it. "Fine. Whatever. Don't take forever though or I'll leave without you."

"Okay." James gave Cooper a nod before leading Connor towards the magic store. Connor glanced back at the retreating Cooper before frowning and looking at James sadly. "Coopy's sad Daddy. I don't like it when he's like that."

"I know," James said. "I don't either."

"Make him better."

"If I could I would. I don't know how though."

Connor made a face. He hadn't like that answer at all. "Fine then. I'll do it myself." He waited until they were in the store before trying to jerk himself out of James's grip. "Daddy! Let go!"

"Connor you're gonna break something-"

"No I'm not!" Connor managed to wriggle free of James's grasp and bounded away, promptly knocking over a crystal ball that was sitting out on display and causing it to shatter all over the floor.

"Connor!" James said in exasperation.

"It wasn't my fault! It was an accident."

"Yes it was."

That voice…James whirled around and found none other than Mr. D standing just a couple feet away from them. Mr. D smiled softly at his reaction before giving Connor a reassuring look. "Crystal balls are a dime a dozen and quite frankly are more of a novelty act than anything else. Please, don't worry about just one little broken ball."

"Okay," Connor said happily. He hadn't been worried in the first place but now he was smug because now James had no reason to scold him.

James's eyes narrowed and he didn't take his eyes off of Mr. D for a second while Connor began to happily explore the store. "What are you doing here?" he asked dangerously.

Mr. D spread out his arms and waved them around. "This is my magic shop."

"Your magic shop?"

"Yes. I own it."

"So you're like a fucking magician or something?"

Mr. D laughed at that. "Oh no Mr. Lawson. I'm something way beyond that."

Well that was cryptic as fuck. James went to grab Connor again because he was feeling uneasy but Connor wasn't having any of that. "NO Daddy!" he yelled stubbornly. "I want to LOOK!"

"Please Mr. Lawson, don't be nervous," Mr. D said gently. "Your boy is in no danger here."

"I'll be the judge of that," James said nastily. He tried to hover around Connor but the younger man quickly bolted across the room, giving James a nasty look in the process.

"Very well then." Mr. D folded his hands together and stared at James passively. "Have you thought about my offer at all Mr. Lawson?"

"No," James lied. He had been finding himself wondering just what the hell the offer was but he wasn't about to announce that fact to this guy.

Mr. D's eyes twinkled in amusement. He knew James was lying and he was making sure James knew it too. "I'm not lying," James said defensively, just hating the vibe he was getting from this guy.

"Of course not," Mr. D said, toying with James by humoring him. "But how about I tell you what the offer is and maybe you can mull it over."

James opened his mouth to refuse but Mr. D went ahead and told him before he could get his objection out. "I'm in the business of granting desires Mr. Lawson. I'm not talking materialistic ones either. I grant _true_ desires; what you honestly and truly want and perhaps even need."

"Oh yeah?" James said skeptically. "And how do you do that exactly."

"I have my ways."

"I bet you do." James folded his arms over his chest and shook his head. He was a lot of things but an idiot was not one of them. Nobody went around granting those kinds of things unless something was in it for them. "Why me?"

"Why not you?" Mr. D countered.

"That's not an answer."

Mr. D sighed loudly. "Mr. Lawson, I like you. That's why I'm making this offer."

"But you don't even know me. And honestly, you're pretty fucking cr-"

"Lawson!"

James's eyes widened as Mark stepped through the doorway. "Marky!" he happily got the hell away from Mr. D and pulled his lover in for a kiss. "How-"

"I saw your car on the way back from the airport," Mark answered before he could finish the question. "Plus I saw Cooper sitting around and pouting about some shit. What happened this time?"

James shrugged. "He's in a funk."

"Again? Good grief this is ridiculous." Mark glanced around the store and shook his head. "What are you doing in here?"

"Connor wanted to check it out," James answered.

"Oh boy…" Mark's eyes narrowed as they landed on Mr. D. "And this is-"

"A very creepy guy who might be stalking me," James answered. "Aren't you Mr. D?"

Mr. D's lips twitched while not taking his eyes off of Mark for a second. "Stalking is such an ugly term Mr. Lawson." He titled his head to the side and examined Mark carefully, who was eyeing him distrustfully. "You take care of him now Mr. Calaway. He needs you far more than you know." He gave James one last nod before backing off, leaving James with a very confused Mark.

"What the fuck was that about?" Mark asked.

James shook his head. "I'll explain when we get home." He looked over at Connor, who was playing with some petrified chicken's feet. "Connor! Come on, we're leaving!"

"But Daddy I'm not done looking yet!" Connor protested.

"I don't care. We're going home right now."

"MEAN!" Connor shouted, angrily stomping off and blatantly stealing the chicken feet. James felt his headache get worse as Mark tried to intercept Connor, but before he could put his hands up to his temples the pain disappeared. It literally disappeared and James had no idea why. "Wha-"

"Mr. Lawson?" Mr. D said, smiling softly and silently letting James know that he was the one who had cured his headache. "Have a nice day." He gave James a wink before disappearing from sight completely, once again rattling James a lot more than he would ever care to admit to anyone.


	3. Chapter 3

"Go over it with me one more time," Mark said as James tried to get the hamburgers and hot dogs ready. Mick Foley, Bret and his niece Natalya were in town and were dropping by so James decided to have an impromptu barbeque to celebrate the occasion. Back before he had gotten banned from any and all WWE events, Mark would sometimes take him and the boys out on the road with him (it was supposed to just be him but finding a babysitter for the kids was harder than it sounded, especially considering the way his boys were). And in the process of that, James had made friends with a select few on the roster while making the rest either fear or loathe him (or both). Mick and Bret were part of the few that actually liked him. In fact, they got along so well that James had gone on vacation with the Foley family a few years back (which left Collette Foley utterly terrified of him-but the kids thought he was cool at least) and Bret was not only Cooper and Connor's "uncle" but James was godfather to a good chunk of the Hart children.

"Ugh, come on Marky," James groaned unhappily. "Do I gotta?"

"Yes," Mark insisted. James had already told him all about the Mr. D thing like a dozen times but Mark wanted to hear it yet again. It was starting to get frustrating because he didn't know what he was going to accomplish by repeating himself a thousand times. "Go over it again."

"But I'm trying to cook!" James whined. "And my story isn't going to change just because you keep bugging me about it. I already told you everything a whole bunch of times. What do you think you're going to accomplish by making me go over it yet again?"

"Lawson-"

"Besides, you're ruining my mood. Mr. D is a douche that needs to just go away so I can have my barbeque-"

"That magic shop was gone when I went back yesterday."

That one stopped James in his tracks. "Wait, what?"

Mark forced James to turn around and face him before expanding on what he just said. "I went back to that magic shop to find that guy and see what the hell his deal was. But when I got there, there was no fucking shop. The place was an abandoned warehouse."

James blinked, mulling that over in his head before shaking his head. "No…no you're wrong. You went to the wrong place."

"James-"

"I was _in there_ Marky! I know I was! Connor and I-"

"I was in there too!" Mark reminded him. "I saw it with my own two eyes, just like I saw how it was an abandoned warehouse not even two days later."

"Jesus Christ…" James didn't even know what to think about that. As if the situation hadn't been weird enough to begin with… "Wait, you went back to that place by yourself?" He shook his head and stared at Mark like he was insane. "Why would you do that? Have you lost your mind? You don't even know what the fuck the deal is with that guy and you went to where you thought he was on your own?"

"Well yeah," Mark said with a shrug. "What else was I supposed to do? He obviously wants something from you and I want to find out what it is."

"He was offering me something, not trying to take anything."

"_Nobody_ like that just offers you shit without wanting something in return," Mark said, snapping a bit without actually meaning to. "Whoever or whatever he is, he's looking to take shit from you."

"Well duh, I'm not a complete moron," James said with a shake of his head. He tried to turn his attention back to the food that was on the grill but Mark forced him to turn back once again. "Marky!"

"I've got this," Mark said, nodding towards the grill.

"Oh come on! Just because I can't cook doesn't mean I can't grill!"

"Last time you grilled the food caught on fire. I'm not going through that again so just quit your bitchin."

James's eyes narrowed. He didn't think that was fair because between Cooper and Mark, he never got to grill on his own grill. But now, unlike the times it was Cooper ruining his attempts, he could be as distracting as humanely possible. Before Mark knew what hit him he had grabbed his shirt and was kissing him, immediately grinding his groin up against his when he felt the older man kissing him back.

"Well geez, all that's missing from this picture is one of you wearing a 'Kiss the Cook' apron."

James and Mark stopped the make-out session to glare at Mick, who was grinning at them as innocently as he possibly could. "Don't you have elsewhere to be?" Mark asked unhappily.

"Marky!" James scolded. "Don't be rude." He lightly smacked Mark's chest before shaking his head at Mick. "You couldn't have given us more time?"

"No," Mick replied honestly. "You invited company over and that means you have to entertain us. And no, a live porno with you and Mark will not entertain me."

"Well you suck," James pouted. The making out had stopped but he was in no hurry to leave Mark's embrace. "Are Bret and Nattie here yet?"

"Yeah," Mick confirmed. "They got here like three minutes after I did. And before I came out here I saw Glenn and Rob pulling up in the driveway."

"Oh fun." James looked back to Mark. "Does it bother your lovely brother at all that his boyfriend and my son used to be fuck buddies?"

Mark's eyes narrowed a bit. Once upon a time, Cooper and Rob had briefly been fuck buddies back when Cooper had run away from home during his downward spiral after Joie died. Rob had fallen for Cooper pretty hard but the entire thing was doomed from the start because Cooper had lost his one true love and now shunned the very idea of romantic love. Glenn and Rob had started dating about eight months ago and the one persisting issue they seemed to have was that Rob had leftover feelings for Cooper. Or at least that was what Mark said Glenn believed. James thought the idiot was probably being overly paranoid but then again, he wouldn't actually be surprised if it was actually true. Either way, it gave James something to torment him about, which he always enjoyed.

"Don't even start with that crap Lawson," Mark warned him. "I mean it. You do it JUST to be an asshole-"

"Well yeah," James admitted. "It's Crispy Critter. Why wouldn't I be an asshole to him? He hates me."

"Do I need to remind you that you made him hate you?"

James just waved his hand dismissively. He didn't care for such facts. "Bah to the humbug Marky Mark." He broke away from Mark's embrace and wrapped his arm around Mick's shoulders. "Come on. Let's go see what the kiddies are doing."

Mark rolled his eyes but neither of them noticed as they walked back into the house. It didn't take very long to see what everyone else was up to because they were all gathered in the kitchen. Nattie and Cooper were wrestling, with him trying to put her in a full nelson before getting his toes stomped on and receiving a stiff shot to his gut from her elbow. Rob was seemingly acting like the referee while Glenn watched from the corner and Bret tried to keep Connor from joining in on the fray.

"No fair no fair!" Connor shouted as Nattie took Cooper down by his legs and attempted to put him in the Sharpshooter. "Daddy she's cheating! She's cheating Daddy, make her stop!"

James frowned in confusion. "How is she cheating?"

"Coopy's supposed to win, not her!"

Mick chuckled at that. "Now how do you argue with that?"

"You don't," Cooper grunted. He managed to kick his legs out of the Sharpshooter position and wrap them around Nattie's waist, effectively putting her in a body scissors.

"Oh I beg to differ," Nattie grunted back at him. She slapped him across the face before attempting to get herself free from the body scissors. He started struggling to keep her in them and they began rolling all across the floor, making everyone get out of the way as fast as they could.

"Hey now, keep it clean dudes," Rob ordered in such a laid back voice that he was completely ineffective as a referee. "No-now come one, titty twisters are not clean."

"OW OW OW!" Cooper shouted obnoxiously loud as Nattie continued her torture. "You bitch! I'm going to get you for this!"

"Oh yeah? Wha-OW! That was my tit you fucker!"

James laughed and stepped over the fighting duo so he could stand by Glenn, who eyed him contemptuously. "What do you want Lawson?" he asked irritably.

"I just came to say hi," James said innocently. "Jesus Crispy, you don't have to take my head off for it." He pouted his lips when Glenn's expression remained unchanged. "Come on Crispy. I'm the one who's supposed to make you cranky. You already being that way is taking away my fun."

Glenn shook his head. "Believe me, being in your presence has already made me crankier. You've succeeded beautifully."

"But it don't feel that way," James objected. "It feels like I'm just adding salt to the wounds." He jerked his head over to Rob, who was trying to break Cooper and Nattie apart because it had turned into a hair pulling match. "You get into another fight with him?"

"None of your business."

"What was it about?"

"What part about none of your business did you not understand?"

"All of it because it's no fun. I want to know."

Glenn just glared at James before walking away and snaking his arms around Rob's waist so he could give him a kiss. James rolled his eyes at the display because he could plainly see it was just Glenn trying to prove a point. There was trouble in paradise and he wanted to find out what it was. And if Crispy wouldn't tell him then he was just going to have to use other means to find out whether they wanted him to or not.

…

"So how's the family?" Mark asked Bret during the middle of dinner. Connor had tried to get them all to eat outside but it had been way too hot and they had to put their foot down with him and tell him that that wasn't going to happen. He hadn't been happy to hear that and in retaliation he had released Stinker and was letting the ferret run free on the table. Spencer was eyeing the creature from his spot by James's feet but wasn't doing anything else because James had scolded him for trying to make the thing his dinner.

"Eh." That was all Bret really needed to say. "The civil war has kind of settled down…key words kind of."

"It's stupid," Nattie chimed in, letting out a yell when Stinker climbed up on her and went down her shirt.

"That means he likes you!" Connor happily announced.

Glenn shook his head as Stinker poked his head back out from Nattie's shirt. "That is completely unsanitary," he complained.

"I think he's cute," Rob said, reaching out and taking Stinker so he could climb all over him.

"The thing smells-"

"That's why his name is Stinker," Connor said helpfully. "Don't you know anything Uncle Crispy?"

Glenn rolled his eyes. "Don't call me that."

"My kid can say whatever he wants," James said immediately, ignoring the shake of the head he was getting from Mark. "You're Uncle Crispy. I don't see why you just can't accept this."

"Dude, that nickname is not cool," Rob said, coming to his boyfriend's defense. "He's not even crispy."

"He was."

"But he's not anymore. He looks great now."

James snorted at that one and got an elbow from Mark for his troubles. "Ow! Marky! What was that for?"

"You're being an ass," Mark informed him. "Knock it off."

"He's ALWAYS like that," Glenn said unhappily. "This is NOTHING new. He's been this way to me my entire life."

"Guys-" Mick was cut off by Bret, who just shook his head and motioned for him to keep his silence. He had learned it was best to just stay out of it when James and Glenn got into it.

"It wasn't your entire life," James claimed defensively. "I didn't meet you until you were three, remember?"

Mark pinched the bridge of his nose and sighed loudly. "Can I please get through one dinner without you two ripping into each other? Please?"

Glenn shook his head and ignored his brother in favor of glaring at James. "You want to know what I think your problem with me boils down to?"

"Yeah," James said, very curious to know what his theory was. "Go ahead and tell me."

"Jealousy. That's what it all boils down to."

James stared at him, trying to figure out if he was serious. When he realized he was, he threw his head back and laughed. "Jealousy? What the hell have you ever had for me to be jealous about?"

Glenn grinned evilly, which set off all sorts of warning bells to everyone else around him. "A loving mother."

Mark literally dropped his hamburger and kicked his brother from underneath the table. "Don't you DARE-"

"You always seem so proud that you burnt down my house and killed my parents and disfigured me in the process." Now that Glenn had James he wasn't stopping. "But Caroline wasn't too proud was she? She beat the shit out of you and put you in the hospital for it. Any excuse she could get she took because she HATED you-"

"GLENN!" Mark banged his fist down on the table and finally got his younger brother to shut up. It was too late though. The damage was done. Caroline was an instant low blow to James and he was up and gone before Mark could grab him and calm him back down. "James!"

James wasn't listening. He was so fucking angry at Glenn and wanted to kill him but the cold hard truth had made him leave instead. He didn't know why that had gotten to him the way it did. He had already knew that his mother didn't love him. She had made that message clear time and time again during the first seventeen years of his life. One would think he would be used to it by now.

"How can one ever get used to having the person that's supposed to love you hate your very existence. That's asking a bit much."

James's head snapped to the side and looked at Mr. D, who was walking beside him like they were having a pleasant stroll. "What is your deal?" he asked in frustration. "Seriously, why the fuck do you keep following me? What do you want from me?"

"I want you to accept my deal," Mr. D answered.

"Why? What's so fucking great about your deal?"

"Because I want to grant not just one of your true desires. I want to grant _two_."

"Again I ask why."

Mr. D shrugged. "I like you. I feel that you are worthy of them."

"What's the catch? There's gotta be a catch in here somewhere."

"Well there will be consequences of course; every action has one. But-"

"James! James where are you?"

James shook his head and started to go back towards the sound of Mark's voice. "I gotta go."

"What if I could make her love you?"

James stopped despite the voice in his head telling him not to. "What?"

"What if I can make your mother love you?" Mr. D grinned softly because he knew he had James with that simple question. "If you truly desire it, I can make it happen. I can make her look at you with love instead of hate. I can make her feel pride when she looks at you instead of disgust. I can turn her punches and kicks into hugs and kisses."

"She's _dead_!" James hissed. "You can't-"

"I've told you before that I have my ways," Mr. D said patiently. "That is, if you let me." He held out his hand and looked at James expectantly. "Let me help you. Let me give you the mother you've always deserved."

James stared at him for a very long time, unsure about what to do. He knew Mark would say walk away because this couldn't be on the level. But his feet wouldn't move. He stayed rooted on the spot, completely compelled by the offer this guy was making. All he had wanted was for Caroline to love him. Her hate molded him into the man he was now and he still felt regret knowing she had died utterly despising him. And now someone was offering her love on a silver platter? Was he a fool for considering it or a fool for not jumping at the chance already?

"Mr. Lawson? Come now, we don't have all night."

"I…fuck it." He grabbed Mr. D's hand and nodded. "Okay. I accept."

Mr. D grinned. "Good." He reached up and gently touched James's forehead and there was a blinding pain shooting through him but his whole world went black before he had a chance to scream.


	4. Chapter 4

"_BOY GET YOUR ASS BACK HERE THIS INSTANT!"_

_James trembled as he continued barricading his bedroom door. Caroline was in a major psychotic rage and now he was going to be the official target for it if he didn't get the hell out of there. Annabelle was backed up against the wall, hugging herself for dear life as she bawled her eyes out. "The window," he told her, trying his best to wave her towards their only means of escape. "Belle the window! Go go go!"_

_Annabelle started to go but then stopped and screamed as the door was forced open despite the barricade. James tried to get it back shut but was grabbed by the hair and lifted up, causing him to yelp in pain as his hair was almost pulled out by the roots. "Let me go!" he pleaded as he came face to face with his completely enraged mother. _

"_What the fuck did you think you were doing?" Caroline's voice had lowered from the screaming she had been doing earlier. That wasn't a good thing though. This was the calm before the really really bad storm. "Did you think you were cute? Was that it? HUH?"_

"_Mommy-"James felt his nose break as he was literally slammed face down on the ground with all of Caroline's strength. Annabelle shrieked and began to beg but Caroline silenced her for the most part with a swift backhand across the face before kicking him over and over again in the ribs. He tried to roll away and protect himself but she was absolutely relentless. Over and over again her foot came at him and he could feel his ribs breaking and the blood from his insides rushing up into his mouth-_

_Suddenly the memory ended and he found himself once again as a spectator between Caroline and Joseph's fights. But this time he wasn't seeing it out of the eyes of himself of whenever this was. No, he was his full grown self and he was looking at the baby version of himself, sitting there on the floor and staring dumbly between his screaming parents. Jacob was trying to drag him off but he was only six and was being further hindered by the fact that he was already holding a fussy Annabelle. "Come ON James," Jacob pleaded, wincing as the fight continued on before them. _

"_Mum mum mum!" James yelled back, crawling away from Jacob and heading more towards Caroline._

_Caroline was too distracted to notice. She had her sharp nails digging into the flesh on Joseph's face but was forced to let go when he kneed her in the stomach and slammed her down on to the coffee table as hard as he could._

"_I fucking told you to fucking have dinner ready when I came home!" he screamed, spit flying out of his mouth and going all over the place. "Now where is it you stupid cunt? Where the FUCK is it?"_

"_Fuck you!" Caroline yelled back as she struggled to get back up to her feet. "I'm not doing SHIT for you anymore! I'm fucking DONE!"_

"_Fuck you, you ain't done! You are MY wife! I own you you stupid bitch!" Joseph turned to look at the children and he sneered at them angrily. "What the fuck are you all looking at?"_

"_Mum mum mum!" James informed him while Annabelle just cried and Jacob wisely stayed silent. "Mum!" James began to crawl towards Caroline and BAM! Joseph kicked him and sent not only him on to his back but put Caroline in an absolute rage as well. Letting out a shriek that made the hair on everyone's neck stand straight up, she launched herself straight at Joseph and began pounding on him as hard as she possibly could. He yelped and tried to get her off of him but she wouldn't stop. She just kept hitting him and hitting him until his face was a bloody mess and then she dragged him off into the kitchen. Jacob just stood there dumbly in the living room while holding a crying Annabelle and James just laid there on his back howling his head off over being kicked. There was a short scream to be heard from Joseph and then there was a very long couple minutes of quiet that was positively unnerving._

_Finally though, Caroline reemerged from the kitchen, panting for breath and her shirt drenched in blood. "Sssshhh," she cooed at James, scooping him up into her arms and bouncing him lightly. Immediately he stopped crying and rested his head against her shoulder, completely content with his existence once more._

"_Mommy?" Jacob said hesitantly. "What happened?"_

_Caroline glanced back towards the kitchen, a smirk on her lips. "Daddy's gone away," she told him. "He won't ever be bothering us ever again."_

James woke up with a start, barely able to catch himself before he tumbled out of the bed. His body was drenched in sweat and his head was pounding so hard that he couldn't even think. "Marky," he called out weakly, nearly fainting the pain in his head was so bad. "Marky…"

"Here now, be steady. It'll pass soon enough."

James forced himself to look up and saw Mr. D standing by his bed. "Wha-what the fuck is-"

"I was hoping this wouldn't happen," Mr. D said with a shake of his head. "You see, your old memories were supposed to be wiped away and then replaced by the new ones. But that didn't really happen and now you're having a bit of an overload."

Overload could have been understating it a bit. James felt like his entire head was about to explode.

"The human mind is a horribly tricky thing," Mr. D said as he helped James sit up and force fed him some aspirin. "Its complicated in ways that most will never begin to understand. Even tempering with it with magic is not as easy as it sounds." He smoothed down James's hair before continuing on. "And given the life you had and the memories burned into your brain, it's that much harder to get rid of them." He smiled gently. "But not to worry, Within a matter of time they should fade away and you'll be left with nothing but the memories this brave new world you had me create."

James could only groan. The pain in his head was lessening but it was still harsh enough to make him want to throw up from it. "I think I'm going to die."

"Nonsense," Mr. D said dismissively. "You will not be dying here today." He chuckled under his breath as the sound of footsteps reached their ears. "I suggest you perk up Mr. Lawson. You're about to have company."

"Wha-" James sighed when he saw that Mr. D had simply just disappeared on him yet again. "Mother fucker. I fucking hate-"

"DADDY!" A little girl and boy, both no older than eight or nine, came rushing in and dive bombed on to the bed and started climbing all over him like a couple of monkeys. "Poppa said to get up!" the little girl told him. Her long brown hair was pulled back into a ponytail and her face and her denim overalls were covered in dried paint. "And Billy is being mean!"

"I am not!" Billy denied. "You keep your mouth shut Hilary Anne."

"Don't call me that!" Hilary snapped. "Only Grandma can call me that."

"But I like annoying you."

"SEE?" Hilary gave James an imploring look. "See Daddy? He's mean!"

James shook his head, unable to say anything. He didn't even know where to start. Part of his brain was trying to tell him that these weren't his children. He had never seen them before in his life and this was all a huge misunderstanding. But not only was there another part of his brain that was telling him that these were his kids, they _felt_ like his. It was all just really really confusing to him.

"_More kids?" Mark said with raised eyebrows. "Really? We've got three already and I'm always out on the road as it is. Don't you think we should give it a rest for awhile?"_

"_Why?" James asked as he wiped Gunner's mouth off and made sure Lisa and Connor were actually eating their eggs and not feeding them to the dogs. "You said the other night you wouldn't mind more."_

"_Well I didn't think you meant right now!" Mark said in his defense. _

"_Well I did." James reached over and snatched the lighter out of Connor's hand, earning a pout from the eight year old. "What did I tell you about these?"_

"_Oh come on!" Connor whined. "I wasn't going to do anything bad with it!"_

"_But you like being bad," Lisa said innocently. She was their middle child (for the moment anyways) and she looked a lot like James did when he was four, except she was all girly. She and Connor both came from James (by way of surrogate mother) and two year old Gunner was the only one who was biologically Mark's._

"_I do not," Connor claimed in an innocent voice that nobody else was buying._

"_Come on Marky, I already got a woman ready to pop out another one for us," James said, not about to let his mission get sidetracked by the kiddies. "And Mom already said she would help."_

_Mark let out a long sigh and pinched the bridge of his nose. "Oh Lord, you brought her into this already? Now I'm never going to win."_

"_Nope. Admit defeat now and you'll be a lot better off."_

"Daddy?" Billy frowned and waved his hands in front of James's face. "You okay Daddy?"

James blinked before reaching up so he could rub his temples. "I'm fine," he assured them.

"Are you sure?" Hilary asked. "You're not sick are you?"

He forced himself to shake his head despite the fact that it hurt like fuck to do it. "I'm not," he assured them. "Now go on and bug Poppa so I can get dressed."

"Okay Daddy." They got off of him and sprinted out of the room, nearly crashing into the wall on their way. He waited until they were out of sight before forcing himself to get up and go into the bathroom so he could throw up. He felt slightly better afterwards and he brushed his teeth and rinsed his face off with cold water before trudging back to the bedroom and throwing on some clothes. He half expected Mr. D to be back but he wasn't. He was nowhere to be found and James had to go downstairs not knowing what to expect. Whatever memories that had been created for him were obviously there, but his brain was still too fucked up to access them all properly so this shit was going to get real interesting.

"It's about time you got your ass down here," Mark said as James entered the kitchen. "I only tried to wake you up about ten times before you finally decided to grace us with your presence."

"Oh Poppa, don't be grouchy. Daddy was just sleepy." A red headed five year old that James was soon able to identify as Kennedy bounded away from Mark (who was trying to get Chasey's shoes on despite her kicking at him) and hugged James's leg. "Right Daddy?"

"Right." James lifted her up and placed her on his hips. "You tell him."

Mark rolled his eyes in exasperation. "Whatever. I'm not having this argument with you right now." He looked around, an even more annoyed expression coming over his face. "Where the hell are Lisa and the boys?"

"In Connor's room playing video games," Kennedy tattled dutifully.

"Again?" Mark looked ready to strangle someone. "What the fuck? I told them to get down here a half hour ago."

James raised his eyebrows. Mark was wound up and being a parent? What the fuck kind of world had he been spilled into? "Dude, you're acting like this is going to be the end of the world if we don't get there right on time." He wasn't even sure where the fuck they were going anyway, so it was hard for him to sympathize with Mark.

""Dude, you're not the one Mom gets pissy at when we're late to these things," Mark countered.

"But Uncle Glenn is the only one who shows up on time!" Hilary pointed out. "Even Grandma is late-"

"I wouldn't point that out to her if I was you," Mark said as he lifted Chasey up out of her high chair. "Not if you wanna keep your head." He looked back at James. "Get the others will you? I'll strangle them all if I go up there."

"Okay." James gave Mark a peck on the lips before setting Kennedy down and going upstairs. He felt like he was stuck in an episode of the Twilight Zone or something. "Too weird," he muttered under his breath. This was way too weird. What the hell had he gotten himself into this time? "Boys?" he called out. "Lisa?" Calling out that name just felt weird as hell. He had four daughters now. He had always wanted a baby girl and now he had four…but none of the babies were Annabelle's, not even Connor. Why-

"No Joseph, no evil Caroline…it never happened." Mr. D stepped out of the shadows to talk to him once again. "There was no need for it. You had your mothers love and approval the moment she laid eyes on you."

"But…but-"

"It's better this way Mr. Lawson," Mr. D insisted. "Believe me-"

"Where's Cooper?"

"Excuse me?"

"My son damn it! Cooper!"

"Mr. Lawson, Connor is your oldest son here. Cooper…well you know where Cooper is. You have it all in your brain. You just don't know it yet."

"Well that's not-hey! Get back here! Oh fuck you…" James rubbed his temples again until the throbbing became dull once more. Then he ventured into Connor's room and found Lisa and Gunner wrestling on the floor while Connor ignored them and focused on his game. "Did Mark send you up here to bitch at me again?" Connor asked without even turning to look at James.

"Uh…" What the hell was James supposed to say to that? This was already not the Connor he was used to. He had seen him for all of about two seconds and he didn't know what to think. His Connor couldn't play video games. Not only were above his comprehension level but they required him to sit still for way longer than he was capable of doing. But here he was, killing zombies and being totally calm about it.

"You're not supposed to call him Mark you know," Lisa reminded him. "Poppa don't like that."

Connor just snorted before saving his game before getting up and taking out and then turning off his Playstation 2 and his television. The expression on his face and the whole vibe he was giving off reminded James so much of Cooper that it was positively eerie. _And where the fuck IS Cooper? He said I knew where he was but I don't! I don't think I do…it's not coming to me anyway. He better fucking be okay or I'm gonna-_

"Dad? Are we going or not?" Gunner asked, tugging on James's shirt impatiently.

"We better be going!" Connor snapped. "I didn't just turn off my game for nothing!"

"We're going," James confirmed. "Come on. Mark's ready to throw a shit fit if we don't hurry up." His head was still fucking hurting and he was either going to have to pass out or take some serious pain medication. Anything to make it stop would be entirely welcomed at this point.

…

Mark pulled the car into the driveway of the house that James had grown up in and the old memories immediately flared up, making him just stay in the car as the kids (minus Chasey of course) tore out of the vehicle like bats out of hell. Mark had to get out and go around to get her but James couldn't move an inch. His breathing became forced and shallow and he wanted nothing more than to just get the hell away from there. This place…he couldn't handle it. Any good memories that had been given to him were being trumped by the bad ones and he didn't feel safe. He just wanted to go back home where it would be safe.

"Lawson! What the fuck is wrong with you?" Mark asked as he opened up James's door. "Jesus, are you actually sick?" He frowned as he got no answer. "James god damn it, that's not funny. Don't do that no answering bullshit. It freaks me the hell out."

"I…I…" James didn't know what to say. "I…"

"GRANDMA!"

James's head snapped up as he saw the kids bombard Caroline as she stepped out of the house. He gulped out of instinct and just watched as she laughed and attempted to grab them all in a giant bear hug. The Caroline he was used to would have NEVER in a million years even attempt to hug a child. She hated children. Absolutely hated them. She made that clear so many times that it went completely without saying.

_But Mr. D fixed her,_ he reminded himself. _He did, he fixed her. He said he could make her love me and the dream…she killed Joseph when he kicked me. That has got to mean something._

Like a kicked puppy about to face its master again, he slowly got out of the car. Mark made sure he was out before going over to Caroline and she shook her head as he approached her.

"THERE she is! There's my little Chasey!" She reached out and took the baby, happily bouncing her in the process. "You all-"

"Were supposed to be here a half hour ago, yeah yeah yeah." Mark shook his head as he grabbed Kennedy and set her up on his shoulders. "You try getting seven kids ready to go anywhere while the other parent decides to sleep in. It's a fucking chore, let me tell ya."

"Oh I could do it," she insisted. "Watch this." She turned to face the other kids. "Atten…hut!" She smirked as they all snapped into attention. "Onward march!"

"Oh fuck you," Mark grumbled as they all marched into the house.

"You wish," Caroline taunted playfully. She looked over at James. "And you! What the hell are you doing just standing over there? She handed Chasey back to Mark before marching right over to James and just about giving him a heart attack when she pulled him into a bone crushing hug. He was literally too stunned do anything. He didn't even flinch and he also didn't really hug her back. The latter was mostly out of fear. He was afraid that if he made one wrong move she would revert back to her former self and beat the ever living fuck out of him-or worse.

"What is it?" Caroline asked when she realized he wasn't returning the hug. She pulled back and gave him a concerned look. "What's the matter?"

He opened his mouth to speak but his voice failed him. Luckily though, that was quickly overshadowed by the sound of a car screeching to a halt. Both their heads turned towards the sound and Caroline immediately rolled her eyes in exapseration.

"Another one? She just bough one two weeks ago!"

A black girl around Lisa's age came out of the back and from the driver's side emerged the very last person James expected to see. Bleached blonde that contrasted so sharply with her naturally dark hair, gigantic high heels that put her well over six feet tall and with make-up on (he had never seen her with make-up ever), she looked nothing like herself but there she was, in the flesh.

"Auntie Belle! Auntie Belle!"


	5. Chapter 5

"Auntie Belle! Auntie Belle!" Kennedy wiggled around until Mark set her down on the ground and then she bolted straight for Annabelle. "Auntie Belle Auntie Belle!" She wrapped her tiny arms around her aunt's legs and hugged her tight. "You're back you're back!"

"Yeah, I'm back," Annabelle said, reaching down and picking the small child up and hugging her. "Did you miss me?"

"Yes!" Kennedy said, wrapping her arms around Annabelle's neck. "It wasn't fair. I wanted to go to Paris TOO! I wanted to go I like fashion!" She looked back at James and Mark and glared at them angrily. "Stupid Papa and Daddy wouldn't let me go."

"You are too young to be running around Paris for something as stupid as Fashion Week," Caroline said with a shake of her head.

Annabelle rolled her eyes at Caroline's comment. "Deysha was younger than her when she started going. We would have loved to have her along." She handed Kennedy off to Deysha and then reached into her purse and got out a camera. "Here. Go inside and show her all the pictures we've got saved on here. I'm sure she'll love to see them."

"Okay Mommy," Deysha said as she dutifully did what she was told.

James blinked, not even sure what the fuck to do. Annabelle was alive. She was alive and in the flesh right in front of him. This was just blowing his mind. How could this be? Did Caroline loving him somehow save her from the cancer that claimed her before she even reached the age of thirty?

"No it didn't actually. This is your second wish."

James's head whipped to the side and saw Mr. D standing right next to him. "You lost your sister due to rather tragic circumstances and you wished that that hadn't had happened. I made it so." Mr. D smiled thinly and clapped his hand on James's shoulder. "You're welcome."

Then just like that he was gone yet again, leaving James not only reeling from that piece of news but also the sight of Annabelle and Mark WILLINGLY hugging each other. _Okay, I've definitely gotten myself into Bizzaro Land,_ James thought to himself. _This shit is just way too weird._

"Did your girls knock them dead?" Mark asked as he kissed the top of Annabelle's head.

"Of _course_," Annabelle replied, sounding slightly insulted that he would even ask that. "That's what my girls do. They wouldn't be my girls if they didn't."

_What is she-_Before James was done asking that question to himself, another memory popped up to explain it for him.

"_A modeling agency?" he asked as he rifled through the papers on Annabelle's table. "You're starting your own modeling agency?"_

"_Yes," Annabelle replied, reaching over and slapping his hands. "And don't do that! You're going to mess them up."_

_He reluctantly took his hands away from all the papers and began going through the cupboard drawers instead. "Why? I thought you were into doing all the modeling yourself."_

"_I am," she said, rolling her eyes at all his incessant fidgeting. "But I'm not getting any younger and I need to make sure I stay relevant once I'm over the hill and am no longer marketable."_

_He frowned. "Belle you're twenty six. You won't be over the hill for another fourteen years."_

_She snorted. "Not according to the modeling world. The way I figure it, I've got until I'm thirty if I'm lucky…and that's a pretty big if."_

"_Does Mom know you're doing this?"_

"_Why would she? It's not her business."_

"_She wants you to go back to college you know."_

_Annabelle threw down her pen and gave him an irritated look. "Is that why you're here? To give me Mom's lecture for her?"_

"_No…I just missed you," he said innocently. "I never see you anymore."_

_She glared at him for a minute to see if he was lying. When it didn't seem like he was, she just shook her head and waved him off. "Whatever. Go put in a movie or something. I can't concentrate on this now that you've distracted me."_

"James? Sweetie, what are you looking at?"

James blinked at Caroline's question, once again not realizing he had totally spaced off on his trip down memory lane and was freaking out the people around him. "Nothing," he said, shaking it off and looking at Annabelle. She really didn't look like herself (at least not according to him) but he didn't give a shit. He was just glad that she was there. Even the fact that they weren't together in this world didn't matter quite as much simply because she was alive again.

"Hey! Weirdo! Quit staring-whoa!" Annabelle couldn't help but laugh as James picked her up and held her in a gigantic bear hug. "Okay okay, I'm happy to see you too." She hugged him back for a moment before trying to get back down…only to discover he had no intention of letting her go. "Yeah I know I was gone for awhile but you can let go now…no seriously James, what are you doing?" She got no answer except for a tighter hug. "James! I love you too but we've discussed this hugging thing. Just because you can crush me with your brute strength doesn't mean you get to show it off." She shook her head and looked at Mark for help. "Can you talk some sense into him?"

"Now come on Belle. You know I ain't a miracle worker." Mark shook his head and finally stepped up and managed to pry Annabelle out of James's grasp. "Jesus Lawson, you can't be so touchy feely. That's my job."

Annabelle snorted and playfully elbowed him in the stomach. "You keep your filthy paws off me buster."

"Oooh I'm so scared."

Caroline shook her head as Annabelle began smacking the crap out of Mark in an attempt to make him scared of her. "I swear, those two still think they're fourteen or something." Her eyes fell to the driveway, where another car was pulling up. "Jacob…all we now is Glenn and Rob and Cooper and Joie and we'll be set." She reached into her pocket and pulled out a ponytail so she could tie her hair back out of her face. "I should get back inside and make sure dinner doesn't burn." She started to walk back towards the house but stopped and turned around to frown at James. "Sweetheart? Are you okay?"

James nodded, even though he felt headache getting worse all over again. "I'm fine."

She didn't look convinced at all. "Come on." She walked back and linked arms with him before heading back towards the house. "You can lay down for a bit before we eat. Maybe that'll help you a bit.

…

"_Oh you have to be kidding me!" Annabelle groaned as she, Mark, James and Jacob all stared at her home pregnancy test. "No no no….this can't be right. This one is wrong."_

"_Uh…sis?" Jacob slowly shook his head. "You've drank your weight in water the past two days and took like ten of these tests and they've all been positive. I think its safe to say you are pregnant."_

"_Oh God." Annabelle buried her face in her hands and shook her head. "This is not good."_

"_You're telling me," James nodded in agreement. _

"_I mean I have a hard enough time finding jeans that fit me to begin with! Now I'm going to get FAT!"_

_James blinked and stared at his twin in amazement. "Mom is going to kick your ass five ways to Sunday and you're worried about being fat?"_

"_Yes," she replied. "I'm a disappointment already, Mom's come to accept it." She hugged her body and pouted her lips. "I'm going to KILL that freak!"_

"_What did I tell you about calling Glenn a freak?" Mark said, trying to keep the annoyance out of his voice because if Annabelle heard it now, given the mood she was in, he would rip his head right off for daring to take that shit up with her. "And how the hell did you two even…do THAT? Don't you kind of hate each other?"_

_Annabelle nodded and wiped her eyes with the back of her hand. "It was the alcohol. We were both drunk and we started fighting and things just got completely out of hand." She accepted a tissue from Jacob and blew her nose before tossing it in the little garbage can by her bed. "I'm fucked. Assuming Mom don't kill me on the spot, knowing her, she might want me and Glenn to get married…ugh." She shuddered at that thought. "No offense Mark but I wouldn't marry your brother if you paid me."_

"_But you will bang him if there's enough booze-OW!" Mark had gotten socked right in the groin for that one._

"_Hey!" James moved Annabelle out of the way so he could sit by Mark and protect him. "That's something I enjoy very much. You're not allowed to damage it with your fists of fury."_

_Annabelle didn't even acknowledge him. She just stood up and began pacing back and forth. "What am I going to do?" she asked to nobody in particular. _

"_I don't know," Jacob replied. He got up and grabbed a hold of her so she would stop with the pacing. "But we'll figure it out. I promise."_

…

"_Oh holy crap!" James exclaimed as he stood behind the doctor, who was encouraging Annabelle to push with every ounce of strength she had. "Belle, your vagina looks like it's turned into a giant mutant!"_

"_Oh my God," Mark muttered as Jacob slapped his own forehead. They were all in the delivery room because the doctors couldn't get them to leave and James's insight was really not all that helpful at the moment. It was making Annabelle want to kill him, Caroline sigh in exasperation and Glenn…well he wasn't really listening because Annabelle was doing her best to break his hand and he was in quite a lot of pain._

"_What?" James said innocently. "I'm just telling the truth!"_

"_James," Annabelle said through clenched teeth. "Get your eyes away from there before I get up off of here and CLAW OUT YOUR FUCKING EYES!"_

_James raised his eyebrows. "Wow sis, you gotta cut down on the hostility there." Despite his off handed reply to her threat, he did move back over to Mark…just in case._

"_That's good, I see the head," the doctor said encouragingly. "Just keep pushing."_

_Annabelle let out a scream and did what she was told, not noticing the way Glenn's whole face was a giant mask of pain and the fact that Caroline was petting her sweat soaked hair. There was a very long moment where there was nothing but Annabelle's screaming and then the doctor let out a triumphant yell and the next thing they all heard was the sound of a baby crying._

"_Oooh!" James got back up and made a face as the nurse cleaned up the crying baby boy with a towel. "Ew! He's covered in icky shit."_

_Mark snorted while Caroline shook her head. "James…"_

"_What? Why do people keep saying my name like that?" He pouted his lips and shook his head. He just didn't get what he kept doing wrong. He really didn't. _

"_Gimmie," Annabelle requested, letting go of both Caroline and Glenn to accept the newborn infant. For months all she had done was lament that she wasn't ready to be a mother and didn't want this baby…but now here she was, staring at the child like he was the greatest thing she had ever seen. Oh the effects of motherhood._

"_Name?" A nurse holding a clipboard said._

"_Cooper Benjamin-"_

"_Lawson," Annabelle said, cutting off Caroline before she could finish. "Cooper Benjamin Lawson." She had already fought Glenn and Caroline tooth and nail because she didn't want to give the baby Glenn's last name. She hadn't really said why…all they knew was that she didn't want to do it and once she didn't want to do something, there was pretty much no hope of changing her mind._

…

"_Uncle James! Uncle James!" _

_James's eyes widened as he looked away from the toys he and Connor were playing with. "Cooper?" Oh Lord. The six year old was running down the block all by himself, no Annabelle or Glenn in sight. He quickly scooped up Connor and met Cooper halfway, easily catching the boy as he jumped into his arms. "What the HELL are you doing here?"_

"_Mommy and Daddy are fighting over me again," Cooper informed him, wrapping his arms around James's neck and resting his head on his shoulder. "They wouldn't stop so I snuck out and came to play with you." _

_James shook his head and began carrying Cooper and Connor back towards the house. "You shouldn't have done that," he said gently, smiling as Connor reached over and tried to put his fingers in Cooper's mouth. "They probably have realized you're gone and are worried sick about you."_

"_No they won't. I left them a note. They'll know I'm here." Cooper moved Connor's fingers away from him and grinned at his cousin. "Who am I Connor? Huh? Who am I? Tell me who I am!"_

"_Coopy!" Connor shouted, clapping his hands together excitedly._

"_No! It's Cooper! CoopER not CoopY!"_

"_Coopy!" Connor repeated._

_Cooper sighed dramatically and tossed his hair back in such an Annabelle fashion that James just about died on the spot. "You're hopeless," he informed Connor. "But it's okay, I'll help you. We'll whip you into shape in no time."_

…

"Dad!"

James opened his eyes and sat up, tasting blood on his lips and taking a long minute to realize it was all dripping from his nose. "Shit," he grumbled, snagging himself a tissue and wiping up the blood. "Shit shit shit!"

"Dad?" Connor said worriedly, kneeling down beside James and checking to make sure none of his siblings were around to see this blood. "Jesus Christ, are you okay?"

"I'm fine," James answered. He sat up and wiped his nose again to make sure the blood was stopping. "Its just a nosebleed." He stuffed the tissue in his pocket because there wasn't a place nearby to throw it away. "It's just a nosebleed."

"Yeah well it's coming back again," Connor informed him. He snagged another tissue and forcibly tilted James's head back to help him stop the bleeding. "You gotta do it like this you goof. Its not a superficial cut you can't just wipe the blood away."

"But what if I wanna?" James asked childishly, STILL not sure what to make of this…well _normal_ Connor. He was so used to the giant child version of Connor he wasn't sure if he could handle this one.

"Well stop wanting to you dummy." Connor was trying to joke around but there was clearly some concern in his eyes. "Dad I don't want to say this but uh…you look like complete shit."

"Do I?" James let out a long sigh and shook his head. "Well I'm fine, so stop worrying."

"But Dad-"

"I'm _fine_" James insisted stubbornly. "I just have a headache and a bit of a nosebleed. This shit happens to people so let's just drop it, okay?"

Connor curled his lower lip before finally sighing in defeat. "Fine. Whatever you say."


	6. Chapter 6

It was officially one of the strangest dinners James had ever been a part of. There were two tables set up in the room and the kids (with the exception of Connor) were at one and the adults and Connor were at the other. The very idea of Caroline hosting this kind of dinner party thing took a lot of getting used to. The Caroline he was used to hated people and cooking; hell she rarely ever actually made meals. It was one of the things she and Joseph had fought about most back in the day. For the most part they all had to fend for themselves because she was more content trying to live off booze. But on the tables sat just a feast of food the likes of which he had never seen before and she had made it all. It just fucking blew his mind.

"Could someone pass me the gravy?" Jacob of all people was still alive and James wasn't exactly thrilled to see him. He was older and two hundred pounds lighter than James remembered him but he still had the Joseph resemblance and that was enough of a deal breaker right there to hate him on sight. And his wife Ruth really wasn't doing anything to win him over either. She kept glancing over at him, giving him these looks that clearly said she was raping him with her eyes. Now normally James was an attention who didn't mind an eye rape every once in awhile but not from people that made him throw up in his mouth a little bit. This woman looked like Miss Piggy after getting hit in the face with a sledgehammer and she had this horrible gap between her teeth that was really big and starting to creep him out. Bitch needed a dentist and she needed it now.

"Here you go," Connor said, passing it across the table before taking a biscuit off the plate Rob was passing around. "So is it weird feuding with Uncle Glenn now?" he asked, shoveling his food into his mouth and making Caroline wrinkle her nose at him and shake her head to get him to eat in a more civilized manner.

Rob shrugged. "It's alright. I mean, I liked tagging with him better but in this business, it all is what it is."

Connor smirked. "Hmmm…so do you think you had better after match sex when you were partners or now that you're enemies?"

That question prompted Glenn, James and Joie to all choke on the food that was in their mouth. "Dude," Cooper said, shaking his head and reaching over so he could bop Connor right in the head. "What did I tell you about saying that shit while I'm eating? I don't want to picture Dad having sex _ever_ but _especially_ not when I'm eating!"

"Yeah really," James agreed, shuddering at the images that were now stuck in his head. "Why would you say something like that?"

Connor merely shrugged. "Because it bothers all of you."

Mark snorted and gave James a good hard look. "Ring any bells Lawson?"

James put out his lower lip and pouted a bit. He knew damn well Mark was insinuating that Connor got that shit from him and well…he was right. But still, he didn't like having the blame thrown on him. It just wasn't very fair in his book.

"You know he gets it from you too," Caroline pointed out to Mark. She couldn't deny for a second that James was responsible for that kind of talking but at least she was quick to bring up the fact that it wasn't all his fault. "Between the two of you, your kids have no tact whatsoever."

"Tact is overrated anyway," Connor informed them. "If you weren't raised in the Little House on the Prairie days you'd be able to see that Grandma."

James's eyes literally just about popped out of his head when he heard that one. An age joke? On Caroline? He knew this was a different world or whatever but even now he wouldn't risk saying such a thing. The her he grew up with was still fresh in his mind and that version of her would have gotten up and bashed Connor's face in for talking to her like that.

Caroline chuckled dryly and slowly shook her head. "I love how you think you're so funny. Really, it's quite entertaining."

"That's right, I am," Connor said proudly. "You can't lie and say you're not amused. I see right through you."

"Oh really?"

"Yeah. I've fucking-"

"Hey!"

Connor pouted. "Dad lets me cuss."

"I don't care. You're in my house and you will be watching your mouth." Caroline looked away from Connor and frowned at Annabelle's plate, which didn't have nearly as much on it compared to everyone else's. "That's all you're eating?" she said dubiously.

Annabelle nodded curtly. "Yeah. So what?"

"That's nothing," Ruth said, eyeing Annabelle like she was absolutely insane. "How can that be your dinner? I wouldn't be able to survive with just that."

"Well maybe you should try it," Annabelle said, her tone more than a little nasty. "It would do you some good." She waited until Ruth wilted before looking back at Caroline, who was just shaking her head at her only daughter. "I'm watching what I eat."

"Again?" Cooper said sharply, concern immediately creeping into his voice. "Mom why? You're retired, you don't need to do anything like that anymore."

"Well…" Annabelle glanced over at Mark. "Did Vince tell you?"

Mark nodded. "Of course. He kind of had to, it would affect my storyline too."

"Okay," she looked around at everyone else at the table "see it started with me and Hef talking about me doing Playboy again-"

"Again?" Caroline shook her head. "Wasn't once enough?"

Annabelle gave her a dirty look. "You know, since you talk about how rude it is when anyone else interrupts around you, maybe you should practice what you preach for once."

"Ooooh fuck," Jacob said lowly as a stare down commenced between Annabelle and Caroline. They looked ready to rip each other's heads off and James found himself clearing his throat in hopes that he could defuse the situation a little bit. "So can I uh…hear the rest of the story?"

Annabelle continued to glare at Caroline just a little bit more before continuing on. "Next month it'll be ten years since my original cover and he thought it would be cool if we did another one. And then I got a call this morning from Vince since I guess he heard the news or whatever and he's wanting me to go down to the Caribbean with the divas and do that whole photo shoot thing with them."

"But you're not a diva," Glenn pointed out. "Not anymore anyway…wait, did you getting stalked by DDP count as you being a diva?"

Her reply to that was an icy glare before speaking once more. "He wants to put me back on TV for awhile," she announced. "Get me involved with Mark's storyline with A-Train and the whole Stephanie/Sable thing."

James blinked, trying to keep up with this whole thing. It wasn't very easy for him to do though. His eyes were starting to water and even when he rubbed them they wouldn't stop. It was the headache again. It was fucking acting up and he was really starting to get freaked out. This was not normal by any stretch of the word. He fucking needed to find Mr. D and find out what the hell was happening to him…

"_So wait, now you need a wife?" James said incredulously as he ate his ice cream. Mark had just gotten off the phone with Vince and apparently they wanted to do a whole storyline with DDP stalking his wife or whatever. It was something that had just been run by Mark today and they had spent two hours on the phone, Mark trying to argue for James being used and then Vince trying to talk Mark into still doing the storyline and then trying to figure out who they could use. "Why can't I be involved with the storyline? I'm your actual spouse it would only be fair if I was the one being stalked."_

"_Yeah well McMahon says he wants to use a wife for the storyline," Mark said, tilting his head back and dumping a good portion of his bag of peanuts into his mouth. "He says that'll be more relatable to the audience."_

_James snorted loudly at that one. "Oh please. He had Mae Young give birth to a hand, he don't care what's relatable to the audience. He just doesn't want it to get out that you're a fudge packer."_

_Annabelle wrinkled her nose and pushed her frozen yogurt aside. "Yuck. You know I can't eat fudge anymore because of that saying. Just so you know."_

"_I thought you couldn't eat fudge because it made you fat," James shot back._

"_Well yeah," Annabelle conceded. "But that's not the point." She leaned back in her seat in a bit and turned her attention to Mark. "So who does Vince want to use for this thing?"_

_Mark shrugged. "He tried to get me to agree to suddenly revealing that I was married to one of the divas but I shot him down on that. I just wasn't feeling that."_

"_So does that mean they're just going to hire a model who can't act her way out of a paper bag?" James asked. He shook his head as Mark nodded. "Oh come on. That'll just fucking kill everything. I can act better than those bitches."_

"_Yeah but nobody will believe that anyone is stupid enough to stalk you," Annabelle told him. "You're a freaking giant and you look far from helpless." She leaned forward and made eye contact with Mark while also seemingly letting her shirt "innocently" slip open so he could see down it if he wanted to look. "Why don't you just use me?"_

_Mark raised his eyebrows at that. "You?"_

"_Yeah," she confirmed. "Me. I've taken acting classes, I'm your age so you don't look like a total skeeze trying to date some girl who's barely twenty and I'm right here willing to do it. So what do you say?"_

_Mark slowly nodded his head. "Sounds good to me." He looked over at James. "You okay with this Lawson?"_

James snapped out of it and immediately tried to cover up the blood once again dripping out of his nose by grabbing his napkin and pretending to blow it. He really didn't fool anyone though. "Are you okay?" Ruth asked, eagerly trying to get over to check on him when Annabelle stopped her with a glare and something so blatantly mean that James had a hard time believing it came out of her mouth.

"Hey, Porky Pig, we talked about this. My brother don't want your grubby hands all over him."

"Belle," Jacob groaned.

"Hey, your wife is openly trying to get with your brother," Annabelle shot back. "In front of your own kids too. Why do you sit back and watch like a little bitch?"

"Hey, can you two not do this right now?" Connor snapped at the both of them. "There's something wrong with Dad-"

"Is he really sick?" Hilary asked. "He looks sick."

"I'm not sick," James denied.

Mark shook his head slowly and tried to pry the tissue away from James's face. "Well you sure as hell haven't been acting very right today."

"But I'm fine," James whined weakly, not sure why he was bothering to do so. He felt pretty far from fine but the fit was subsiding again and he took the tissue away from his nose on his own, making sure to hide just how much blood there was on it from everyone else. "I'm fine." He still was convincing nobody and he decided to quickly change the subject. "Joie!" he said, happy to turn the attention on to the person his son (he refused to go along with Cooper being Glenn's now) was holding hands with under the table and thinking he hadn't caught on to it. "Your wig….its blue." That was a terrible segue but at least Joie had the decency to take the bait.

"Yeah, it's a new one." Joie looked over at Cooper and smiled, which instantly made the other man light up. "He got it for me after last night's gig."

"Gig?"

"Yeah." Cooper eyed James like he was dumb. "You know, musicians play gigs and stuff. It's our thing."

"Oh don't be a smart ass to me, I'm sick."

"I just thought you said you weren't sick."

Mark shook his head. "He only admits to being sick if it suits his purposes. It's his thing."

"Yeah well he needs his rest," Caroline said, giving James a maternally stern look. "Because Dale Bowery's lawyer is going to be all up his ass tomorrow." She shook her head and stabbed her food angrily. "Little bratty fucking bastard thinks he should just walk. Fucking thinks raping and killing those girls was a game-"

"To him it was," Jacob said. "And he'll make a game out of the entire system. His family is Bill Gates rich, this trial is going to end up being a three ring circus."

_What the fuck are they talking about? What's this bullshit about court and who the hell is Dale Bowery? If he's raping people I'll just kill him. Forget court crap._ James shook his head and pushed his chair back so he could stand up. "I'll be right back." He took off without another word and went into the bathroom, locking the door behind him. He needed a minute to process everything without having to try so hard to pretend he was just fine. _Let's recap…apparently I'm going to court with some dude that should just be killed, Mom's alive and loves me but don't get along with Annabelle, Belle's a retired model running an agency and is also apparently Mark's on-screen wife, Mark and I have a boatload of kids, Cooper is Crispy and Belle's kid and is a musician, Joie is alive and still with Cooper, Connor is a normal smartass and Jacob is still alive and has a wife that wants to jump my bones…holy fuck, what did I get myself into?_

"It's amazing isn't it? How much can change from just one little aspect of life being different."

James looked over and jumped a bit when Mr. D revealed himself to just be standing there, calm as can fucking be. "Something's wrong with me," he said automatically. "My headaches-"

"They'll pass Mr. Lawson."

"And my nose-"

"It all will pass. Please, just be patient."

James scowled and shook his head. "Easy for you to say. You're not me trying to figure all this out."

"No I'm not," Mr. D admitted. "But I hope you bear no ill will against me. I simply gave you what you wanted-now its up to you to deal with the consequences." He gave James one final nod before vanishing, leaving the other man to shake his head and grab some toilet paper because his nose had once again started to bleed.


	7. Chapter 7

After the death of Joseph, Caroline sold Likansuk Porn for five million dollars, which was a hell of a lot of money back in 1966. Once the money was collected and she paid off what was left on the house, she used the money to support the family as she put herself through law school. It had been a secret dream of hers and with nobody to really stop her she went for it. It was far from an easy road though; female lawyers at the time were far from the norm and there was a hell of a lot of sexist road blocks standing in her way. Fortunately for her though, she cranked up the heinous bitch persona that hadn't left her during the reality switch and she bulldozed the roadblocks and fought her way to where she wanted to be. She was a prosecutor for many years before becoming the Las Vegas District Attorney in 1978. Her conviction rate was legendary and her ruthlessness was even more so. She reduced many female defendants to tears (and a few male ones as well) and in 1991 she broke the nose of one defendant that attempted to pull a gun on her during his trial. In 1998 she retired in order to pass the District Attorney position to the Assistant D.A. at the time, which had been none other than James. He had gone to law school and had followed in her footsteps career wise, further cementing his spot as her favorite.

"Oh fuck me fuck me fuck me," James muttered under his breath as he stared at the files that cluttered his desk. The headaches weren't so bad today and he had only bloodied about three tissues so far. It probably would have been less, but he kept having to dig out what he had learned in law school so he could maybe survive this job. He wasn't ready for this actually having to work for a living shit. He was way too used to living off the hefty profits of Likansuk. _Why did Mom have to sell that shit?_ he lamented as rubbed his eyes. _Why couldn't she just settle for a porn enterprise? I mean I know its not very like "respectable" or whatever but at least we would have still been loaded._

His phone rang and he was grateful to answer it because it provided him a nice distraction. "Yes?"

"Mr. Crum is here to see you Mr. Lawson."

James cringed. He hated being called Mr. Lawson. "Who?" The name "Mr. Crum" wasn't ringing any bells.

"Donald Crum. You know, Dale Bowery's lawyer?"

Oh. That douche bag. James had found his file earlier and had gone through it. He was being charged with the murder and rape of five girls and was being in held in jail without any bail because there wasn't a price his family couldn't afford. His father had a huge stock in some oil company over in some country where they wore towels on their head and neither him nor his wife thought it was fair that Dale was being treated the way he was. The entire thing disgusted Caroline and it was making James twitch in all kinds of ways. A trial was too good for this piece of shit. Murder was one thing but rape was something James despised with a passion and he found himself wanting to solve this his own way, which was a knife to the idiot's gut. That would keep him from hurting anyone ever again.

"Mr. Lawson?"

"Send him in," he grunted gruffly. He didn't want to see anyone representing the scumbag but he really didn't have much of a choice. _This really fucking sucks…_

Mr. Crum entered the room a few seconds later and James had to fight really hard to keep the grimace off his face. "What can I do for you?" he asked.

"I came here to discuss my client," Mr. Crum replied. He went ahead and sat down in the chair in front of James's desk. He was a short, balding man in his late forties and he had these fucking weasel teeth that James just wanted to punch out of him.

"Your client…" James chuckled humorlessly at that. "You wouldn't be looking for a plea deal now would you? Because I'm not offering one."

"Mr. Lawson I've known Dale Bowery his entire life and-"

"Friend of the family?"

"What?"

"Are you a friend of his family?" James asked, getting cranky that he had to repeat himself.

"Oh, yes," Mr. Crum confirmed, making James's opinion of him drop even lower than it was. "Yes and that's why I know Dale will refuse to plead guilty to any of these ludicrous charges-"

"Ludicrous charges?" James laughed so sharply that it sounded more like a bark. "Look, Weasel Lips, I hate to break this to you but there's not going to be a jury anywhere that's going to acquit this guy. I know you've had to seen the evidence by now. All five girls have his jizz in them and all five of them wound up dead. There were fingerprints at the scene that matched your client and quite frankly, I think you and Dale and his family are just shitting your pants because he finally got caught.

Mr. Crum twitched. "Mr. Lawson-"

"This conversation is over. Unless your client decides to plead guilty then I only want to see you in court."

"Mr. Lawson-"

James stood up and intentionally loomed over Mr. Crum at his full height just to scare the piss out of him (and it almost worked very literally). "Do I need to repeat myself?" he asked dangerously.

"N-No," Mr. Crum stammered out. He quickly got up to his feet and backed up towards the door. "I'm going I'm going."

James watched him with narrowed eyes, not sitting back down until he was actually gone. _Fucking idiot,_ he thought angrily. _I should just kill him in his sleep and get it over with. I'd be doing the world a favor…_

…

"Daddy Daddy! Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Hilary came sprinting out of the house as fast as she could and jumped into James's arms as soon as he was out of the car. "You're home you're home!"

He laughed at her enthusiasm and hugged her tight. "Hey honey. How have you been?"

"I've been good Daddy," she replied, hugging his neck as he began to carry her to the house. "I've been real good."

"That's good. Where are the others?"

"Uh…Poppa's giving Chasey a bath and uh…well who cares? I was GOOD shouldn't I get ice cream?"

James laughed and gave her a peck on the cheek. "Whatever you say darling."

"Good. I knew you would see things my way Daddy."

He laughed again and carried her into the house, where he got her settled in the kitchen with a gigantic bowl of ice cream. Once she started eating he started making rounds about the house, seeing where the hell everyone else was. Lisa ended up being in the living room with Kennedy, diligently brushing her younger sister's hair while brushed one of her doll's hair. He found out from them that Gunner was out at a friend's house and Billy was now talking football with Mark, who had put Chasey down for her nap. _That only leaves one…_

"Connor?" James said as he knocked on Connor's bedroom door. He had stopped to change back into his regular clothes because he felt like a freak in his monkey suit and now he was determined to get his son to come out of his room. "Connor are you in there?"

"Shit!" he heard Joie hiss loudly. "I TOLD you guys-"

"Sssh baby just relax," Cooper said, his voice giving away the fact he was higher than a fucking kite. "It's Uncle James, not Uncle Mark. He's cool about this shit."

"Yeah," Rob agreed. "Cooler than a cucumber."

James smacked his forehead, already knowing what the hell was going on in there. "Connor open the door," he ordered. "Just come on and let me in before Mark comes and finds out what you're doing."

Connor could be heard groaning loudly from the other side of the door. "Hold on." James could hear the door being unbarricaded and once it was opened the smell of reefer hit him like a truck. "Get in," Connor hissed, yanking James in and quickly closing the door behind him. Rob was sitting on the chair by Connor's desk and Cooper and Joie were sprawled out all over the floor, laying on each other and freely passing a joint back and forth between them.

"So smoking weed in a house full of children seemed like a good idea?" James asked, shaking his head at the lot of them. The whole weed thing didn't bother him quite as much as the fact that the kids could have tried to walk in and potentially see what was going on.

"Well we were going to leave," Rob said, trying to sound defensive but only succeeded in sounding baked. "But then the road came and found us." He waved his arms around lethargically. "The road is everywhere James. It's life. Life is the road and we're just on it."

James blinked before shaking his head. "I think you've had enough."

"And I think I need Doritos." He held his hands up and looked at Cooper. "Chip me."

Cooper grabbed the bag of chips and tossed them over to Rob. "Want some?" he asked, holding his joint up to James so he could take a puff.

James shook his head. "No. I'll pass." He looked at Connor, who was shuffling his feet sullenly. "Connor-"

"Oooh I think I know this one," Connor said, rolling his eyes and flopping down on the bed. "You want to know what on earth possessed me to do this." His tone was taking on a completely over dramatic tone and it was really startling to James because he sounded more like Cooper than Cooper did. "I'm sixteen, I'm throwing my life away starting down the slippery slope of drugs blah blah blah blah."

"You were really going to say that?" Rob asked, frowning at James.

"That would have been the crux of it," Connor said before James could begin to say anything in his defense. "Daddy here mirrors Grandma whenever he gets with the scolding." He gave Cooper a dirty look. "Your mom ruined things for us simple potheads. Her stupid little LSD adventures in the seventies and the total cocaine binges she used to go on-"

"Dude leave Mom out of this," Cooper said defensively. "She's got nothing to do with this situation."

"Yeah really," James agreed.

Connor rolled his eyes. "Whatever." He snagged his shoes and slipped them on.

"Where do you think you're going?" James asked incredulously.

"Out before you snitch me out to Mark or Grandma," Connor replied.

"And what the hell makes you think that I would do that?" James asked, pretty insulted that Connor thought that little of him.

Connor only shrugged. He had the sullen teen thing down something scary.

"Well you're not leaving the house so just stop with that idea," James said, still trying to figure out what the hell to do about this situation. He wasn't used to firm parenting at all; usually he let Connor and Cooper run wild but Connor leaving the house and running around while stoned just didn't seem like a recipe for anything good. If what he was saying about Caroline and drugs were true, the last thing James wanted was for her to find out about this little situation. He was still expecting her to go off on the slightest provocation and was not about to test her in any way, shape or form.

"Oh come on…" Connor groaned.

"Hey, look on the bright side," Cooper said cheerfully. "We've got plenty of supplies in here." He reached into his jacket pocket and pulled out a baggie full of weed.

"Cooper!" Joie said, smacking his boyfriend on the chest. "Don't show Uncle James!"

"Wha?" Cooper looked up at James and laughed. He was so far gone that he probably didn't even know his own name.

James shook his head and backed up towards the door. "If Mark finds you, you're all on your own," he warned. He knew that he really should take the weed away but the dirty looks Connor kept shooting him combined with the returning headache made him just leave the situation the way it was. "You got it?"

"Yeah yeah yeah," Connor said with a wave of his hand. "I got it." He waited until James had his hand on the doorknob before speaking again. "Dad?"

James stopped and looked back. "Yeah?"

"Can you make a Burger King run for me? I'm starving."

"Me too," Joie and Cooper chimed in at the same time.

"Van Dam makes four," Rob said, raising his hand like a good boy.

James stared at the four of them for a long moment before sighing and nodding his head. "Make a list of what you all want so I know what to get." He raised his eyebrows as all four of them shot up and scrambled for paper. _That might not have been a smart thing to say…_


	8. Chapter 8

_Annabelle and Mark were walking up the ramp side by side, Mark's music blaring to signify that he had been victorious in his match. J.R. was talking away about future Raw events as they stopped at the top of the ramp, preparing to do Mark's signature one arm up in the air pose. But from behind emerged DDP, and he whacked Mark on the back with a steel chair and then got him right over the head with it. He went to hit him for a third time while he was down but Annabelle (who had stumbled and fallen when Page ambushed Mark from behind) stepped in and shoved him, causing him to drop the chair. Page looked absolutely amused by her actions and Annabelle looked furious, saying all kinds of things that made it a good thing that J.R. was overshadowing it with his own commentary._

"_Annabelle get away from him!" J.R. pleaded as she raised her fists and motioned for Page to bring it on._

"_She wants to fight DDP!" Heyman exclaimed as Page just looked ecstatic about this turn of events._

"_Get away from his Annabelle! He's psychotic!"_

_Annabelle took a swing and Page easily avoided it. She took another swing and this time he blocked it before violently ripping her to the ground and grabbing a hold of her hair. There was a struggle and then he moved back, a chunk of her hair in his hands (which were extensions of course…Annabelle would have broken character and kicked his ass all over the arena if he had yanked out her actual hair). As she curled up in a ball and sobbed, Page ran off and Mark chased him off, J.R. ranting in fury as they went to commercial._

"James? Where are you?"

"In here!" He was at Annabelle's house because Lisa had wanted to come play with Deysha and he had ended up going out and picking up a giant bucket of KFC so he and the girls could eat it while they watched something. Now originally they were going to pick out a movie but Deysha had managed to find the tapes Annabelle had saved from her last little stint in WWE and that was what they were viewing now.

"Stupid guy," Deysha said unhappily. She was shooing away Annabelle's little toy poodle Star so she wouldn't come eat the chicken bones while also trying to eat her coleslaw. "I'm glad Mommy kicked his ass in the end."

Lisa shook her head. "Poppa did the work. She just-"

"Ssshh! Don't correct me!"

James chuckled at that. Despite being adopted she had the Lawson attitude. _Comes to show how much we rub off on people._

Annabelle came into the room a few minutes later, shaking her head when she saw that they were eating right in her living room. "What in the hell-"

"I TOLD you we were going to get in trouble," Deysha scolded, doing her best to immediately pass the blame to James since it was him that said they could just eat in there.

James shrugged before giving Annabelle his best innocent look. "What? The kitchen is all far away from the TV…besides, we're being careful." He was completely neglecting to tell her the fact that he had almost spilled gravy on one of the couch pillows and nothing short of certain death would make him say it. Not with the look she was giving him now. "And it's not like we're eating something really messy like spaghetti or…something else that's really messy."

Annabelle continued to give him quite the nasty look before noticing that she was making the girls really nervous and knocked it off in record time. "Can you please just eat on the floor and use the coffee table then?" she asked. "None of you are sick so I'm not making exceptions to the not eating on my new furniture policy.

"Deal," they all three said at the same time. They quickly moved to where they had been told and Lisa patted the spot next to her on the floor. "You wanna eat with us Auntie Belle?"

Annabelle shook her head. "No thanks. I'll eat something later."

James frowned at that response. The Annabelle he remembered wouldn't ever turn down some KFC. That had been her favorite place to go eat. "Are you sure?" he asked. He held up a chicken leg, totally inviting her to take it. "Come on, just one little piece. It's not going to hurt you."

She shook her head again. "I don't want it."

"How about some coleslaw then?" He was not about to be swayed on this matter. "Come on, just a little bit." She looked too skinny to him and he didn't like it. He wanted to feed her something to maybe help out in that department. "A little won't kill you."

"James…seriously…I'm fine. Just drop the subject." She bent down and kissed Deysha on the top of her head before leaving the room once more. James stared after her, shaking his head before looking back at the TV and trying to finish his food.

_Mark got back into the ring with a steel chair, just having beaten the crap out of DDP and now looking to do even more damage on top of it. Annabelle was in the ring and Page was on his knees, hearing a whole bunch of shit from her. As Mark began to swing the chair, Page's hand shot out and grabbed Annabelle by the wrist, yanking her into harm's way so she took a steel chair shot directly to her back instead of him. She went down to the mat in a heap and Mark dropped down to his knees immediately to check on her while Page rolled out of his ring and made his escape before he could get his head ripped right off his shoulders._

James sighed and ate a little bit faster so he could just be done already. Wrestling had never been something he had liked watching to begin with and seeing his sister getting blasted with steel chairs was not exactly helping to keep his bloodlust down by any means. He had come to realize that morning that he was going to have to go hunting real soon before it got out of hand. _Might be going even sooner than I thought._

He managed to finish his food a few minutes later and he got up so he could throw his stuff away, leaving Lisa and Deysha alone to keep watching TV in the living room. He found Annabelle putting a grape in her mouth and munching on it before putting the bag of them back in the fridge. "That's all your eating?" he asked, REALLY not liking that.

She looked at him like he was crazy. "I ate a few more before you came in here. Just relax and stop acting like I'm a child or something. You're almost as bad as Mom sometimes, I swear."

James studied her carefully as he threw his trash away, not sure if she really was getting too over defensive or if he was just reading too much into the situation. His head was still feeling funky and he needed to talk to Mr. D again about how long it would last. It was annoying how much it still bothered him.

"James! Earth to James." Annabelle snapped her fingers in front of his face until she got his attention. "What is with you lately? You've been zoning out on everyone right and left."

James just shrugged, deciding to just once again avoid really addressing the issue. It wasn't like anyone would believe the truth anyway so why bother? "I'm fine. Really."

She didn't look convinced but she wasn't pushing the matter. "That new case of yours making you want to blow your brains out yet?"

"More like me wanting to strangle someone," he replied honestly. "Fucking idiots the lot of them." He opened the fridge and shook his head at the mass amounts of bottled water that was in there. "Good grief, you got nothing good to drink here?"

"Water's good," she said defensively.

"You can get water from the sink! Why do you need-"

"Ew, tap water?" Annabelle shook her head and pulled James away from the fridge so she could close the door. "No. No way. That shit is nasty."

"But it's free," James pointed out. He had never understood why bottled water was such a big deal with people. When he was a kid, he got water out of the sink for free. What the hell was the point of fucking paying for it? It just boggled his mind.

"And it's nasty," she insisted. "Bottled water tastes better and it's better so just shut up and quit arguing." She hopped up on the counter so she could sit on it and cross her legs Indian style. "I gotta ask you something important."

"Okay," he said, leaning back against the wall and stuffing his hands into his pockets. "Ask away."

"Do you think I should get breast implants?"

"…._What_?" His eyes immediately dropped to her breasts and just stayed there because he didn't even know how else to respond.

"Hey! Quit looking you freak!" She picked up a salt shaker and threw it right at him, making him have to quickly catch it before it nailed him in the face. "Look, I know I gotta go under the knife anyway and get a couple stuff done-"

"Like what?" James was just taken aback by this turn of the conversation. "You look _great_."

"Maybe for my age but if I'm going to be on TV and in Playboy then there are different standards to be met." She hopped back off the counter and put her hands on her chest. "I want to get these augmented to make sure there's absolutely no drooping and I really should get a tummy tuck and maybe some lipo and botox-"

"Yeah, I'm the wrong person to talk to about this," James said as he just shook his head. "You're being ridiculous. You look-"

"Well fine. If you're not going to be helpful then I'll just ask someone who will be." Annabelle turned on her heel and stormed out, leaving James standing there just completely confused.

"Mommy's just nervous."

"What?" He turned around and saw that Deysha was standing in the room now.

"Mommy's just nervous," Deysha repeated, throwing her trash away as she nodded wisely. "She hasn't done a photoshoot of any kind in quite awhile so she's putting a lot of pressure on herself." She opened the fridge and looked at the contents and just shook her head. "She's doing the grapes again."

"Grapes?" James wasn't liking where this was going.

"Uh huh. Cooper said she used to do it all the time and I've seen her do it before too."

"Okay…now what exactly is the deal with the grapes?"

"She used to eat eleven of them. Three for breakfast, two for snacks, six for dinner."

"…Are you fucking kidding me?" He could tell she wasn't but he had to say it because that was in how much disbelief he was in. "That's fucking insane! Who in the hell taught her that?"

Deysha only shrugged. "I don't know. Cooper's going to get mad though if he finds out. He's going to yell and stuff and then she's going to yell…" Her voice trailed off and she got lost in thought for a moment. Once she shook it off, she gave him a hopeful look. "Can I come stay with you and Uncle Mark when the yelling starts?"

He nodded because he couldn't bear to say anything else. "Of course. I-" He stopped when she suddenly she had her arms around his waist and was hugging him tightly. He was startled by the sudden gesture but quickly recovered and wrapped his own arms around her, returning the gesture and wondering if there was a way of snapping some sense back into Annabelle. That grape thing was not sitting well with him and he could not let it keep going on if it had started. _Note to self: talk to Cooper about putting an end to that bullshit. If anyone can help me, he can._


	9. Chapter 9

James slipped through the dark streets, hiding himself in the shadows just like he was so accustomed to doing. His bloodlust was to the point where it was going to start getting ugly if he didn't feed it soon so he had made up some bullshit excuse about having to go get some milk and then making his escape before the kids could ask to come along with him. In the process of getting this new life's memories he had come to learn that Mark had never taken a human life-as far as he knew anyway. And for whatever reason he could not remember whether he was supposed to be a killer here or not. The answer seemed to be leaning towards no, but the problem was that his bloodlust from his previous life was still hanging around and it absolutely refused to go away. A lot of people didn't know this, but it was hard to think with a hungry bloodlust.

He turned into one of the many dark, dirty alleys and his lips turned upwards into a big smile as he finally found the perfect prey. Judging by her clothes she was a hooker and she was walking with her back facing him, heading back out towards the street. She didn't even remotely make it though. He was on her fast, grabbing her by her dirty stringy red hair and yanking her back as hard as he could. She let out a short scream but it was soon silenced by his knife being driven into her chest. He kept a nice tight grip on her, making sure she died right there in his arms before yanking his knife out and then letting her fall to the ground so he could wipe the blade clean. An intense feeling of calm swept over him and he stood there for awhile just taking deep breaths and staring down at her body. Maybe he still always had this inside of him, even with Caroline loving him. Maybe it was just more repressed, unable to come out because she had actually been a mother instead of a terrifying tyrant. Or maybe this wasn't supposed to be happening at all and all the old memories that were embedded into his brain were just making the bloodlust stay. Either way, he didn't know and he wasn't in any mood to put much thought into it at the moment. He had to focus on getting rid of this body and then getting the milk he had said he was going to get and _then_ getting back home before anyone else got too suspicious.

…

"Daddy! Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Hilary and Billy came sprinting out of the house as soon as James's car pulled into the driveway and they jumped right into his arms as soon as he was out of the vehicle. "Daddy Daddy Daddy! Guess what guess what?"

"What what what?" he asked eagerly as he shut the car door with his hip and carried them towards the house.

"Poppa said we could all go out on the road with him!" Hilary looked like she was just going to die of joy right on the spot. "He did he did! He said we could go and watch him wrestle and maybe even play in the ring before the shows start!"

"I want to do a moonsault Daddy!" Billy informed him. "Poppa says I can't but I can! I know I can!"

"I bet you can but let's not test that theory until you're older." James could just picture something going wrong if Billy tried to do just that and he could not let that happen. "And where's Poppa at?"

"Getting his stuff all packed," Hilary answered dutifully. "Lisa asked him if we could go out to eat tonight and he said we had to wait and see what you said."

"Well I don't give a shit," James replied. He opened the door and got into the house before setting them down. "I'll go talk to him and you guys go play and we'll tell you what we decide to do. How's that sound?"

Billy's eyes narrowed and he put his hands on his hips and gave James a hard look. "You promise to actually talk to him and not just take it as an excuse to have sex?"

James literally choked on the breath he had just took. "Wh-what?" he stammered, looking at his son with wide eyes.

"That's what Connor says you guys sometimes do," Billy said, totally not getting how inappropriate this conversation was. "He says you guys like to say you're talking but you're really-"

"Billy!" Thank God for Gunner. "Come here!"

"Why?" Billy shouted back.

"Just come here!"

Billy rolled his eyes and ran off with Hilary right on his heels. James stood there for a minute, shaking off the stuff Billy had just said while also making a mental note to talk to Connor about watching his mouth in front of the kids. Once he was done doing that, he went upstairs and found Mark in their room packing his stuff. "So we're going with you now?" It felt weird asking that, given the fact that he was so used to either Mark not wanting him traveling with him and being banned from any and all WWE sponsored events. "What made you decide that?"

Mark looked up from his packing and shook his head. "What do you mean what made me decide that? Did you suddenly forget what happened the last time Belle and my job mixed together? I mean really, I didn't want to say this to her because God knows she'll claw my fucking eyes out, but I'm surprised Vince invited her back after all the shit that went down last time. There are untrained monkeys that behave better than her.

James blinked at those words. He had heard those words plenty of times but they hadn't been used in reference to Annabelle…

"_What the HELL were you doing Lawson?" Mark asked as James plopped down on the bed and tried to look all innocent. Nobody was ever really fooled by that look though, especially Mark, who had caught hell from Vince because James had tried to hijack the production truck just for his own amusement. "Huh? Can you fucking go through your thought process with me so I can understand it?"_

"_I was just messing around," James said defensively. He didn't understand why this was such a big deal. He had been bored and had only been trying to entertain himself. It wasn't like he had meant any real harm by it. "It wasn't that big of deal!"_

"_It was a big deal to Vince!" Mark pointed out irritably. "Do you even care that you're always getting me in trouble? You're going to fucking cost me my job at the rate you're going."_

_James tried to look apologetic because he knew that he should be but he was having a hell of a time managing it. Truth be told, he wouldn't mind it at all if Mark didn't do all this wrestling shit anymore. It was one of the many things that was putting a strain on their relationship and without it things would be much much better. It was all just a matter of making Mark realize it. "Marky-"_

_The lights to the club were flashing so bright that James had to put his hand up to shield his eyes from it. "Where is she?" he asked, practically having to yell just to be heard over the loud music. _

"_I don't know!" Mark yelled back. "I know she's supposed to be here!"_

_James rolled his eyes. Where Annabelle was supposed to be didn't always mean shit when it came to where she actually was. "Fucking move!" he shouted as people tried to get in his and Mark's way. He was NOT in the mood to be polite and he wasn't going to pretend that he was. "God fucking damn it…"_

"_Lawson!" Mark stopped and pointed out towards the dance floor. "There she is!"_

_James looked and saw Annabelle there, dancing up a storm with Trish Stratus, Lillian Garcia, Amy Dumas, Stacy Keibler and Torrie Wilson. They were all completely inebriated and their dancing was rapidly becoming more and more like soft-core porn. They had a sea of guys coming to surround them and one of them got real brave and put his hands on Annabelle's ass. That didn't go over well at all; she whirled right around and punched him square in the face, which promptly started a brawl right there in the middle of the dance floor. "Oh shit…"_

"Lawson!"

James didn't even realize that he was falling until he hit the floor, banging the back of his head so hard that it knocked him out for a few seconds. When he regained consciousness he saw that Mark was hovering all over him and he realized that there was blood gushing out of his nose and pouring into his mouth. He tried to open his mouth to speak but the blood just went straight down his throat and he began to choke violently.

"Jesus Christ!" Mark helped James sit up so he wouldn't choke to death on his blood. "What the fuck…fuck fuck fuck…" Mark sounded so very beyond at a loss for what to do. "Jesus fucking Christ!" He started trying to pick James up. "Come on. You're going to the hospital right now."

James shook his head and began trying to fight off Mark. "No…no…" He managed to get free and got up, only to get a horrible head rush. He tried to stop and shake it off but then he just started falling and he couldn't catch himself…

…

"_Daddy Daddy Daddy!" Connor came sprinting from around the corner and launched himself right into James's arms. "I know what I want to be when I grow up!"_

"_Oh yeah?" James grinned and bounced Connor lightly up and down. "What?"_

"_A spaceman!"_

"_A spaceman?" It was very hard for James to keep a straight face at that news. "Really?"_

"_Yeah!"_

"_Why do you want to be a spaceman?"_

"_To go to space! DUH!"_

_James watched Annabelle brush her newly bleached blonde hair, shaking his head as he did so. "Mom is going to flip her shit when she sees that."_

_Annabelle snorted loudly and rolled her eyes. "Do you really think that I give a shit about that? Mom can fucking bite me." She looked over at Cooper, who was watching her from his little swing thing. "Isn't that right sweetie?"_

_James tried to crawl away as fast as he could, his efforts being hindered with every kick Caroline delivered to his ribs. He tried to beg for her to stop, tried to say he was sorry for whatever it was he had done this time but she absolutely refused to hear it. She just kept kicking him over and over and over again…_

"Daddy!"

"Oh my God!"

"Get the doctor! Jesus fucking Christ get the doctor!"

"DADDY!"

"Connor get them out of here now!"

James's eyes snapped open and he stared up at the ceiling as his body convulsed uncontrollably. More blood poured out of his nose and coated his lips, making somebody else in the room scream. The seizure seemed to last forever and by the time it was over he felt like he was either going to pass out again or have a heart attack-whichever one decided to come first.

"Easy Mr. Lawson, easy," the doctor said as he and the nurses worked on him. He had a surgical mask on his face for some reason and he actually seemed to be petting James's hair. "No need to panic…"

James shook his head. "I can't…can't fucking…am I dying?"

"Let's not talk about that right now," the doctor whispered. He pulled down the surgical mask and revealed himself to be Mr. D. "We can discuss that later when we have more privacy."

James's eyes widened and he tried to grab at him but he felt something prick his arm and within seconds he slipped back into unconsciousness.


	10. Chapter 10

James had absolutely no idea how long he was out for. He didn't dream or stir; it was all just black. When he finally woke up he felt somewhat better, although that faded when he saw that he was all alone with Mr. D. "Wha-"

"Sssshhh," Mr. D ordered. He placed his hand on James's chest and shook his head. "Relax Mr. Lawson. Just relax." He put pressure on James to keep him from moving and then grabbed a glass of water and offered it to him. "Here. Drink this." He got quite a nasty look from James for that but it didn't faze him at all. "Come on now. You need to stay hydrated. Hydration is very very important." He put the glass closer to his lips. "Come on now. It's not poisoned if that's what you're worried about."

James glared at him before finding himself taking it from him and drinking about half of it in one gulp. Even though he didn't want to admit it he had been incredibly thirsty.

"Good man." Mr. D put the glass aside and sighed. "Now, how are you feeling?"

James just glared at him. The guy was looking to be all concerned but it didn't quite reach his eyes. It was pretty well masked and if James hadn't been quite as good at reading people he would have missed it completely. "What's happening to me?" he asked angrily. He was getting really tired of asking and wondering about this question. If he would have had the energy he would have gotten up to throttle the guy until he got answers out of him.

"You're dying."

Maybe it was just the statement itself or maybe it was just the utterly cool, calm, collected way Mr. D said it; either way, James was just thrown for a complete loop at the words. He blinked several times and opened his mouth but not a sound came out of it. He tried again and still no sound. _No…no no no that can't be right…_

"It is right." Mr. D had obviously caught on to what he was saying in his brain. "I'm sorry, it wasn't supposed to be the case yet. But it seems that with your old memories refusing to fade away and your new ones attempting to take over, the two sets of them are fighting each other and it's becoming too much for your brain to handle." He pointed over to James's MRI results, which had been done while he was out. "You see the grey spots?"

James nodded wordlessly. They were kind of hard to miss because they were fucking everywhere.

"Those are the areas where the overload is doing the most damage. Now, I'm not actually a doctor but this isn't the first time that this is happen so I know it's safe to say that eventually, if it don't miraculously stop, your brain will implode and your death itself should be relatively quick and painless."

James once again found himself unable to say anything to that. He just laid there and stared at Mr. D, who stared right back at him calmly. "Wh…I…why the fuck didn't you say that this was a risk?" That was the only thing he could get out for the moment.

Mr. D shrugged innocently. "Well I did say there would be consequences-"

"But you never said that I was going to die from this shit!" James forced himself to sit up and he was preparing to get up and beat the shit out of this guy if he could stop feeling light headed for just a couple minutes. "I wouldn't have ever done it if I had known that!"

"Well technically you don't know that," Mr. D replied. He didn't look at all fazed by James's reaction to this. "I mean really, this is a better life for you."

"But-"

"Mr. Lawson, please, just listen to me-"

"No! Fucking fix me-"

"I can't."

"Bullshit!" James tried to stand up but had to stop because he was still too light headed. "You're a fucking horrible liar. You can fix me I know it!" He was completely unable to control the volume of his voice he was freaking so bad. Given his murderous ways he was more than familiar with death but it was only okay if he made other people die. He wasn't looking to die himself. He wasn't even forty yet; he had many many more fucking years left in him that he wanted to enjoy.

Mr. D pursed his lips together and was silent for awhile. "I suppose I would be able to…but I won't." He saw the look that came over James's face and still wasn't even fazed. This guy needed an award in being totally deadpan while getting glares that would have sent almost anyone else running for the hills. "Mr. Lawson, this life is better for you. You might not be seeing that fact clearly right now because you are scared, but it is. You have a mother that loves you, a boyfriend that-as far as I know anyway-has been faithful to you all these years, seven children that adore you, a sister that is not toally cowed by anyone and everyone around her…what do you have to go back to in that old life of yours? Better yet, could you really stand to sentence everyone back to that life?"

"What the hell are you getting at?"

"You're only going to hurt the ones you love by making me undo all of this," Mr. D said bluntly. "Let's just face the facts here. Your mother is still not the best woman in the world but she's not the abusive tyrant she was. And you're her favorite…you have her love, her approval and everything you ever strived for. Do you want to go back to a life where even in death she hates your guts and wishes you were never born?"

James's eyes immediately went down. That comment struck a nerve, even when he was trying to pretend that it hadn't.

"Then there's your relationship with Mark. I take you back and you two won't last another decade. Here you two have a shot at making it all the way until death do you part…which is cruel to say given your current situation I know and I apologize. But I speak the truth…" He sighed as James stayed silent. "What about Annabelle? Do you want to condemn her to die a slow death from cancer? Do you want her to go through the pain of wasting away before finally dying yet again?"

"Shut up," James ordered. "Just shut-"

"And what about your children?" Mr. D was not stopping for anything. "Kennedy, Hilary, Billy and Lisa will cease to exist and Gunner and Chasey will just be Mark's…and what about Cooper and Connor?"

"Fuck off _Mr._ _D_," James growled.

Mr. D's lips twitched in amusement. "What about Cooper and Connor?" he asked again. "I know it bothers you that Cooper wasn't raised by you here but he's _happy_! He's _happy_! Joie is alive and they're going to have a wonderful life together. And Connor might be going through a rather difficult phase right now but he's a bright boy with an actual chance of a future. If you go back to what was before, you're condemning Cooper to having to endure a life without his true love and condemning Connor to not being able to live a normal life of his own, which he deserves. Can you do that? Can you do that to them?"

James didn't answer him. All that was sinking into his brain and repeating itself over and over again. The self preservation side of him was trying to tell him that this wasn't right. Something was fishy and he needed to see it. But deep deep down, he knew that even if there was something fishy here, what was being said about Cooper and Connor was completely true. Cooper and Connor were so much better off now…Cooper was happy with Joie and Connor was a normal boy who could do whatever he wanted and not have to rely on Cooper and James and be a child forever.

"Mr. Lawson?"

James ignored him again and continued to think. He didn't want to die. He didn't want to fucking die it fucking scared him. But…how could he go back to anything knowing he took away things his sons deserved? Could he live with himself knowing that? Could he really do that?

The answer was no. No he couldn't.

"Mr. Lawson?" Mr. D probed. "Are you-"

"Go away," James ordered. He didn't want to see him anymore. He just wanted to be left alone.

"As you wish." Mr. D disappeared almost immediately, leaving James all alone to curl up on his bed and stare at the wall blankly, completely unaware that Caroline was just outside the door-and she had heard every word that had just been said.


	11. Chapter 11

Once Caroline got home she went straight to her liquor cabinet and pulled out her bottle of scotch. She tried not to drink it too much because it had been found she got kind of nasty when she got drunk off of it, but tonight she couldn't help herself. Tonight she was seated at her kitchen table, drinking her way through the bottle while smoking all the cigarettes she had. Her radio was sitting nearby but tonight it stayed off. The music would disturb her from the attempt she was making to process what she had overheard back at the hospital.

From the sounds of it, it seemed that James had made some sort of deal with a demon or warlock or _something_ to pretty much change not only his life, but the lives of everyone around him. It just baffled her to really even think about. Their life wasn't what it was supposed to be. James had changed it all. Her mind was trying to reject that very idea because it just didn't seem right but she couldn't deny for an instant what she heard. "Fuck," she muttered under her breath. She clenched her cigarette tightly in her teeth and stared at her glass of scotch. She was trying to search her brain to see if she remembered anything about the life that she apparently had before this one. There was nothing though. In her mind, there had only been the life they all had now. Just trying to imagine anything else was too foreign of an idea to really be possible for her.

She took her cigarette out of her mouth so she could down her scotch in one gulp. The processing wasn't going so well at all. She poured herself more scotch and let out a long sigh. She briefly flirted with the idea of calling the others and telling them what she had heard but then she decided against it. It would just cause massive confusion and even if they did believe her, she wasn't sure if their reactions would lead to them doing anything helpful.

She downed the glass of scotch she had just poured and then pinched the bridge of her nose. Judging from what she had overheard, James had done this shit to make things better, either for himself or for everyone else. And now he was having to die for it, which Caroline could not allow. She had listened to Mr. D very carefully and there was definitely something very off about him, besides the fact that he was something powerful enough to do something like this. He had very strategically drawn James into a corner and made him think that there was no option BUT to accept his "fate". Caroline didn't believe that though. Maybe it was because she just didn't want to but she didn't believe it. Mr. D was up to something more and she was going to find out what it was.

"_Mommy Mommy!"" James came running into the house as fast as he could. He practically threw his backpack across the room and jumped into her waiting arms. "Hi hi hi!"_

"_Hi sweetheart." She lifted him up with relative ease, although it was clear there was only going to be so much longer that she could do it. At only seven years old he was a bit over four and a half feet tall and she was quite curious to see how big he would get before his growing was all said and done. "Did you have a good day at school?"_

"_Uh huh." He nodded his head and hugged her neck. _

"_Where's your sister?"_

"_Outside with all her friends. Suzie was chasing me again?"_

"_Again?"_

"_She was trying to kiss me and give me cooties." He wrinkled his nose in disgust and it was so cute that she had to laugh and give him a kiss on the cheek. She wasn't an affectionate woman by nature, but with James she made a huge exception. Since the day he had been born he had been the apple to her eye. She loved Annabelle and Jacob, she really did, but James was her baby and she didn't do that good of a job at hiding it._

"_Where's Mark at?"_

"_He had to stay after school again. He called Mrs. Stevenson a bad word but I'm not supposed to tell you that." James nodded along to that until he stopped and realized he just told her anyway. "Wait a minute…" his eyes got really big "whoops…"_

Caroline shook herself out of that memory and put her cigarette out. This processing wasn't getting her anywhere. She needed to take action. She got up to her feet and started to head towards the phone. It did occur to her that there was one person she could call that might be able to help her: that person being Paul Bearer. It was not a choice she really wanted to make. She and Bearer had never liked each other. For whatever reason he didn't like James and that had instantly rubbed her the wrong way. But she didn't see much choice in the matter so she was just going to suck it up and do it.

When she got to the phone she realized that she couldn't remember his number off the top of her head. She stood there for several minutes, trying to remember it. Finally she rolled her eyes in frustration and went looking for her purse because it had a little book with all the phone numbers she needed stored in it. She was sure Bearer's was in there. At some point she must have written it down in there. She hoped so anyway.

_Caroline found herself flipping through the channels over and over again, even though there was nothing on and it was doing nothing to soothe her anger. She and Annabelle had gotten into another fight. She didn't even really remember what had started it this time. These days, the drop of a pen set the two of them off and made them try to rip each other's heads off. It did not help that Annabelle would not listen to any sort of reason even if her life depended on it. She wanted to do what she wanted, even if Caroline told her no and also explained why she shouldn't do so. It was enough to just drive her completely and totally insane._

_She heard the sound of the door opening and in came James, his rushed footsteps making the pictures on the wall rattle as he went. Fourteen years old and he was bigger than Caroline herself, although he didn't always act like it. He had caught on to the fact that he was Caroline's favorite long ago, and he still hammed it up whenever he possibly could, much to Jacob and Annbelle's disgust. _

"_Mom look! I found a puppy!" He held up a pit bull puppy, who was happily trying to turn itself back around so he could resume licking James's face._

"_You found him?" Caroline's face was already twitching in amusement and exasperation. "Or bought him?" That was the same puppy they had seen at the pet store window the other day and James had wanted to go in and get a closer look but there hadn't been time for that._

"_Uh…" James pouted his lips a bit and bounced on the balls of his feet. "If I admit I bought him am I in trouble?"_

"_James!" Caroline pinched the bridge of her nose and shook her head. _

"_But Momma he was all lonely there!" James knelt down beside Caroline's chair and held the puppy more towards her so she could get a better look. "Look, he's happy now!" He set the puppy down on her lap and patted its head. "I named him Sparky."_

_Caroline let out a long sigh and stared at Sparky, who put his two front paws on her chest and licked her face. "You know this is a lot of responsibility, right?"_

"_Uh huh!" She didn't say no so that automatically meant yes to him, so he scooped Sparky back into his arms and kissed Caroline's cheek. "Thanks Mom."_

"_I-" She let out a low chuckle as he took off to go show off his new puppy. "That boy I swear…"_

"Oh fucking hell," she muttered under her breath. She had been searching all through her little book while thinking back about that day and hadn't found Bearer's number anywhere. She shook her head and tried looking again, this time keeping her mind clear as she looked. But still it wasn't there. She must not have bothered to write it down, which wasn't too surprising considering the state of their relationship but a huge inconvenience at the moment. She tossed the book aside and went back to the kitchen so she could grab her keys. She was just going to go to Bearer's and talk to him and if he wasn't home she would just figure out how to find Mr. D and talk to him herself.

One way or another though, James was NOT dying on her watch.


	12. Chapter 12

James scowled as he flipped through the television channels. He hated being stuck in this hospital. Absolutely hated it. His skin felt like it was crawling he hated it so much. He wanted to leave but the doctors wouldn't let him. They wanted to run more tests on him because they didn't know what was wrong with him. There was no logical medical explanation for his condition and they were just bound and determined to find one. He wanted to just tell them the truth so they would leave him the hell alone but he knew he couldn't. Nobody was going to believe him and he didn't feel like spending whatever time he had left in the nuthouse.

"You want to watch a movie Daddy?" Billy asked. He, Hilary and Kennedy were all sitting on the bed with him, thinking that by snuggling with James they were making him feel better. Gunner, Lisa and Connor had gone out to get some snacks from the vending machine and Mark was trying to feed Chasey although it wasn't going so well for him. Either she would keep moving her head or just spit out the spoonfuls he managed to get in her mouth.

"She only likes to eat when Daddy feeds her," Kennedy said wisely. "She does that when Connor tries to feed her too."

Mark sighed and gave Chasey an exasperated look. "Come on Chase, we've been over this. Daddy's not feeling well so you have to cooperate with me instead." He tried to feed her another spoonful but she turned her head yet again, not giving a damn about anything he had just said.

"Here, just give her to me," James said with a sigh.

Mark shook his head. "I've got it."

"No really, just give her to me."

"I said I-"

"Just _give_ her to me damn it! I'm not dead!" _Yet._ "I can feed our daughter!" That came out in a nastier tone than he intended for it to yet he didn't particularly feel like apologizing. He was too cranky right now.

A very very uncomfortable silence filled the room. The kids were all looking at James with wide eyes because they hadn't ever heard him snap like that before. Whenever he and Mark had a fight, they had always made sure to keep it far away from the kids. Mark stared at him for a long moment before sighing and handing Chasey and her food over. Chasey brightened right up and James smiled softly at her. "Hey…" He gathered up some food in the spoon and held it up to her lips and she gladly took it. "That's a good girl."

"We're back!" Lisa happily exclaimed as she, Connor and Gunner came back in carrying enough snacks to feed a small army.

"Good grief," Mark said, shaking off James's comment and giving the three oldest a very exasperated look. "Did you buy the entire vending machine?"

"No," Connor said, his tone getting a tad defensive.

"We only bought out like half of it," Gunner informed them.

Mark pinched the bridge of his nose as they dumped the treats out on the table and started passing them out. "None of you are going to have any room for dinner later."

"So? Dinner is overrated." Connor ripped open a bag of cool ranch Doritos and started stuffing them into his mouth. "Snacks are much better."

"Oooh do you have candy?" Billy asked as he and Hilary scrambled off of James and went to go inspect the newly acquired stash. Kennedy waited patiently on the bed until Lisa handed her a bag of animal crackers she had just opened. "Thank you!" she said brightly. She popped one right into her mouth and then held one up for James. "You want one Daddy?"

James wasn't really hungry but he took the cracker anyway and ate it. "Thanks sweetheart."

"Daddy, can we watch a movie?" Hilary asked as she and Billy rejoined him on the bed.

"I don't care." James handed the remote to her and let her turn it to some movie on the Disney channel. He fed Chasey a little bit more before she lost interest in eating even for him and then he put her food aside and closed his eyes so he could pretend to be asleep. Being stuck here was not helping the depression he was fast sinking into. He knew he had chosen this fate but that wasn't really doing much to change his emotions. Knowing that he was going to die was not enjoyable at all and since he didn't know exactly when it was going to happen, he was starting to get anxious as to when the moment was finally going to come. He wished he could just relax somehow and just take what time he had left and maybe enjoy it. That would be a better way of doing things. But as hard as he tried, he couldn't. He was too scared to.

He pretended to be asleep until Hilary's movie was over and Mark finally took them out to get dinner. Once they were finally gone he opened his eyes and let out a sigh of relief. He was getting the hell out of this place no matter what anyone else said. He ripped out all the IVs and shit that were hooked up to him and got out of bed. He didn't know where the clothes he had been wearing when he had been brought here were but he did know where Mark had stashed some for when he was planning to stay overnight. Those would do just fine until he got his own.

"Where do you think you're going?"

James jumped a bit as he turned around and saw Annabelle standing there. "What are you doing here?"

"Well I was coming to visit you but apparently I'm catching your escape instead." She quickly shut the door and shook her head. "Are you even supposed to be standing up right now?"

He shrugged. "I really don't give a rat's ass what I'm supposed to be doing. I want out."

"James-"

"I can't stay here Belle." He finished changing into Mark's clothes and realized he didn't have any shoes to put on. That sucked but he wasn't about to let it put a damper on his escape plans. "I can't fucking do it. I'm going insane here."

"And leaving is going to help?"

"It can't hurt."

"The doctors would disagree."

"The doctors can kiss my left nut. I'm leaving. You can help me, try to stop me or at least just get the hell out of my way." Completely blunt and to the point but it wasn't like he had much time to waste.

Annabelle stared at him for a moment and he really did think she was going to try to stop him. But then smirked a bit and glanced at the window. "If you're going to bust out of here, you might want to go out the window. Less doctors trying to stop you that way." She went over to the window and opened it for him. "Meet me out at my car. I'll drive you out of here."

"Th-wait, where is your-" James sighed as Annabelle left the room without another word. "Thanks sis. Really appreciate your help. Nothing like being on a wild goose chase for your vehicle. It really just completes my day.

…

"Bearer!" Caroline pounded on the door as hard as she could. She had been standing out there for only about a minute but that was a minute too long for her. Paul's car was in the driveway she was more than sure he was home. "BEARER! Open the fucking door!" She grabbed the doorknob and started trying to just twist it open. It was locked of course. She scowled angrily and started to try to find something to just break the damn window open with.

"What in the world are you doing?" Bearer yelled angrily as he finally opened the door. The glare he was giving her revealed just how much death he wished upon her. "Do you have ANY decency at all?"

"No," Caroline replied shortly. She pushed her way past him and let herself into his house. Usually she wouldn't ever actually be that rude but tonight she had no time to waste in being polite. "I need your help."

Bearer glared at her with narrowed eyes. "Oh yes, because barging in here like this is really going to inspire me to help you." The sarcasm was just dripping from his voice and Caroline had to clench her teeth and force herself to ignore it.

"James is in trouble."

"So? You're more than capable of helping him."

"Not this time." Caroline launched into the explanation of the conversation she had overheard between Mr. D and James. As she kept talking she saw the look on Bearer's face go from indifference to one of disdain and disbelief.

"Your son is a moron," he declared once she stopped talking.

Her eyes narrowed angrily and he shook his head. "Well he is," he insisted. "If he was as smart as he's supposed to be he would have realized that this little deal was nowhere near on the level."

Caroline continued with the glaring. As dumb of a decision as this was on James's part, she did not appreciate the shit Bearer was saying right now.

Bearer saw the look she was giving him and shook his head. "It's the truth. Glare at me all you want but it won't change anything. The _best_ case scenario is that Mr. D is some kind of demon."

"_That's_ the best case scenario? What the hell is the worst case then?"

"Your son made a deal with the devil."

Now what could a mother say to that? Caroline sure as hell didn't know. So she stared at Bearer incredulously until she could come up with something. "We need to get Mr. D."

"We? What is this "we" nonsense? I'm not getting involved."

"Oh yes you are."

"No I'm not. You want me to summon what might possibly be Satan himself? Are you insane? Your son dug his own grave and-"

Caroline had heard enough. She grabbed Paul by his meaty throat and actually shoved him back until he hit the wall hard. "You're helping," she said dangerously. She dug her nails into his flesh as she squeezed even harder. "And that's final. You understand?"

Bearer tried to refused but when she kept choking him to the point he almost passed out, he had no choice but to nod.

"Good boy."


	13. Chapter 13

James rested his head against the passenger's seat window of Annabelle's car. They had just been driving around for awhile now, not actually heading into any place particular. They couldn't go to their houses since there would be people there that would raise hell until James was taken back to the hospital or they would call Caroline and have her drag James back to the hospital herself. So around and around they drove, with him trying to rest and ignore the anxious glances Annabelle was giving him every few seconds. She was clearly second guessing her decision to help him get out of the hospital. He just hoped that she didn't take him back. He knew the situation was bad. He had caught a glimpse at his reflection. His face was completely pale and he was sweating profusely. Every breath he took was getting harder and harder to take. It was really just a matter of time now. How long did he have? A few minutes? A few hours? He certainly didn't have any more days left. He'd be genuinely shocked if he even made it through this night. The only chance he had to do it was because of his sheer size. He was a big dog and his body was putting up the best fight it possibly could. He couldn't hold on forever though. Sooner rather than later, he was going to give out.

"Are you sure you don't want to go back?" Annabelle asked. "You look awful."

"And I'm going to look better back there?"

"Maybe they can do something-"

"They can't. They've been trying but they can't. There's nothing anyone can do."

"You don't know that."

"Oh I do."

"How?"

"I know my own body Belle. I'm fucking dying here. And I'm not fucking exaggerating. I'm fucking _dying._"

That sentence was followed by a very long, uncomfortable silence. Annabelle opened her mouth several times to say something but no words came out. What could even be said to that? That wasn't exactly a thing most would know how to respond to. Finally Annabelle just pulled over to the side of the road and looked at him in disbelief. "No," she managed to say. "You don't know that."

"I do."

"How?" she asked again, much angrier this time. "How do you fucking know?"

"I just do, okay? Now can you please-"

"No! I'm not gonna just do anything James! Not until I get a straight answer from you."

"I-" What he had to say got lost in a coughing fit that was so violent he couldn't shake it for several minutes. In the midst of it a mouthful of blood was coughed into his hand. He didn't dare to look at it because he didn't want to draw Annabelle's attention to it. This was it though. He knew with an overwhelming certainty that this was it.

Annabelle shook her head and went to start driving again. "I'm taking you back to the hospital. You can't-"

"It's too late. They can't save me."

"Please put a little more faith in them than-"

"I made a deal," James said quickly, taking huge gasps of air and swallowing heavily. "Mr. D…demon or something I don't know. I made a deal though. Made her love me."

"Made who love you?"

"Mom."

"Mom?" Annabelle looked completely confused now. "What are you even talking about James? Mom loves you. You're her favorite. You're always were her favorite."

"Not always. She hated me. Up until she died she hated me. But I got it changed. Mr. D fixed it. He fixed all of it."

"James _stop._ Please just stop. You're talking crazy."

James reached over and grabbed the wheel so she couldn't turn back on to the road. "This is just the consequence of him changing it. My life for all of this."

"Wha-James this is insane. You have lost it. Now let _go_ of the wheel." She tried to remove his hand so he grabbed her and turned her to face him. "James!"

"Mom lives, you live, Joie lives…Cooper and Connor are happy…it's worth it right? It's gotta be worth it. It's gotta be…" James started to cough again, only this time his throat closed up on him. He tried to gasp for air but got absolutely none of it. He faintly heard Annabelle crying out his name but he couldn't do anything to respond to it. He made a wheezing sound as he tried once again to breathe and then his heart suddenly stopped…and then there was nothing. His body slumped over and his glassy, dead eyes stared out the window, where Mr. D was standing just several feet away, watching with a grim sense of satisfaction.

…

"Are you sure this going to work?" Caroline asked sharply as she watched Bearer draw the symbol on the dining room floor. They had moved the table and chairs to the other room so they would have more room to work with. His suggestion to locating Mr. D was a summoning spell, which would make him come to them instead of them having to try and track him down. Under normal circumstances Caroline wouldn't have gone for anything magic related. She didn't believe in all the supernatural stuff Bearer always spewed out but given that these weren't normal circumstances, exceptions were being made at the moment.

"It should," Bearer replied curtly. He was still not at all happy with her and was letting it show with the way he talked and the glares he kept shooting her. "I've never had it _not_ work when I've tried it." He finished drawing the symbol and stood back up. "Hand me my book." He held out his hands and waited, rolling his eyes when Caroline just glared at him. "_Please_."

"That's better." Caroline handed the book over to him and shook her head. "Now get on with it."

Bearer gave her an irritated look so she gave him the nastiest look she possibly could, which made him re-think what snarky little comment he was going to give her. "Fine. Stay back and be quiet until I'm done. I can't have any interruptions." He waited until Caroline nodded and took a step back before beginning. "Demon, we summon thee. Come to us-"

"Demon? Mr. Bearer, I'm insulted you would even say such a thing to bring me here."

Caroline and Bearer both spun around and looked at the doorway. Mr. D was standing there, his hands behind his back, looking at them passively. "Well that worked fast," she muttered under her breath.

Bearer shook his head. "This isn't a good thing," he hissed. "He's not supposed to show up until I'm done with the spell."

"And I'm supposed to show up in that symbol because otherwise, anything could happen," Mr. D piped in. "Like I could do this-" Faster than Caroline could even blink Mr. D came forward and snapped Bearer's neck like it was a twig. "-and you wouldn't be able to stop me."

Caroline watched as Bearer's body fell to the ground and then stared back at Mr. D. She didn't even show the slightest bit of intimidation. Whatever he was going to do, she wasn't going to cower in fear as he did it. That wasn't the game she played.

Mr. D chuckled a bit at the look she was giving him. "I could feel your need to summon me Mrs. Lawson. I should have told you that you were wasting your time. Your son made a deal with me and I've already collected."

"Collected?"

"Yes. He died just-"

She didn't let him finish that sentence. Her fist shot out and nailed him right in the chin. His head rocked a bit with the blow but it didn't faze him for long. He backhanded her and she went flying, hitting the wall hard enough to make her see stars for a few seconds.

"Mrs. Lawson, I don't like dealing in fisticuffs," he said in that same calm, monotone voice. "That's not how I do business."

"What about another deal then?" She wiped the trickle of blood from the corner of her mouth. "My life for his."

Mr. D chuckled again. "I hate to break this to you, but I'm not into that sort of simple trade. Don't get me wrong, I admire that you offered but killing you now and bringing him back is not a deal I will make. I need something more."

"Well what do you want then?" Caroline asked. She walked back over to him and folded her arms over her chest. "Name it."

"I don't particularly want anything. Not anything you can give me anyway." He saw how much she clearly didn't like that so he shook his head. "I won't bring him back with a simple trade. However…for your soul and having you being one of my demon soldiers-"

"Demon soldiers? What are you then?"

"Devil Mrs. Lawson. I think deep down you knew that already. Now, as I was saying, for your soul and you working for me for all of eternity, I will reverse everything I changed for his deal, which will bring him back. I should warn you though, you will automatically die when I do this-as will Jacob, Annabelle and Joie. I should also tell you that Gunner and Chasey will not be your grandchildren and Cooper and Connor will be the only other ones that exist. Now, tell me, is condemning the whole lot to them to their original fates worth your son's life?"

Caroline thought about it for a moment. Big picture wise she knew she should say no. The lives of the many should always be more important than one. But in this case, she couldn't bring herself to do it. "Yes," she answered.

Mr. D's lips twitched in amusement. "You'll feel differently afterwards. But oh well." He grabbed her hand and squeezed it hard. "You've got yourself a deal Mrs. Lawson."


	14. Chapter 14

It felt like James's entire body was being ripped back and his eyes snapped opened, staring at the ceiling in shock. The last thing he remembered was being in the car with Annabelle and he was sure he had died…the memory though, was completely hazy now. Everything about the life he had gotten himself into it was hazy now. Like it was a dream or something. He didn't remember falling asleep though. He was trying to remember but he couldn't. He couldn't even remember how he had gotten in the bedroom in the first place. The last clear cut memory he had was storming out of the house after Glenn said that shit about Caroline.

He rolled out of bed and rubbed the back of his neck. He was alone and the clock said it was 1:30 in the afternoon. What day was it even? It felt like he had been asleep for days. "Mark?" He left the room and looked up and down the hallway. The house was too quiet. No children to be heard. He had had more kids but now he couldn't even remember their names. What did he even still remember? Annabelle, Jacob and Joie had been alive, Cooper had been Kane's son, Caroline had loved him…the whole thing was seeming more and more ludicrous by the second. It couldn't have been real…could it?"

"Mark?"

"Dad?" It was Cooper. "You finally up?"

"Yeah…" James watched Cooper come up the stairs before looking around again. "Where is everyone?"

"Connor's downstairs with Rosenberg and Mark left this morning. He was gonna wake you up but I told him not to. You needed to sleep."

"I did?"

"Well you've had a fever for the past few days." Cooper was giving James a bit of a strange look but then shook it off, obviously justifying the weirdness from him with the supposed illness he had come down with. "It was pretty bad. You were all gross and sweaty and I think you were hallucinating." He reached out and put his hand on James's forehead. "You feel cool now though. I guess it must have broken last night."

"Oh…" Cooper had no reason to lie to him. It was just a dream. A very complex, real feeling dream but still a dream nonetheless.

Cooper frowned at the look on James's face. "Are you okay Dad?"

"I'm fine," James said quickly, shaking his head and trying to hide how much he was bothered. "Just go downstairs and call for some pizza. I'm starving."

Cooper looked far from convinced by James's assurances that he was okay but James barely even noticed. He just went into the bathroom and went to the sink, turning on just the cold water and splashing his face off. Before he dried his face off he looked at his reflection in the mirror. All the other "memories" he had he was letting them fade away but there was still one trying to remain. Caroline had loved him…Caroline had loved him and he wanted the memory to remain so badly. For the first seventeen years of his life he had fought for a scrap of affection from her and had gotten nothing. All he wanted to do was remember how it felt but he felt nothing.

_Because it wasn't real. There's nothing to remember because it wasn't real. It was just in your head._

Sighing sadly he grabbed the nearest towel and dried his face off before tossing it aside and leaving the room. It was time to get back to reality.

…

Mr. D watched the Lawsons through the window, passively observing them as they ate dinner. Everything was back to the way it was before James had made the deal with him. This was Caroline's deal and nobody besides James had any recollection that anything had changed and even he was forgetting it all. To him it was only a dream that he would forget that he even had by the end of the week. It was better this way. Why torment him more with what he had lost? To have his mother's love and then have it taken away was just cruel. Better for him to think it hadn't been real at all and hopefully somehow make peace with it all sometime in the future. Besides, Caroline remembered enough for the both of them and was completely miserable and disgusted with herself about it.

_A mother shows her love by condemning her son to her hate…_the irony of it all made him chuckle under his breath and he disappeared without a trace.


End file.
